| Vol.
I, No. 4 |
January
Thaw |
Jan.
19th, 2001 |
Links to Working Together On-Line
Useful Data on Communities
The amount of info on the web is enormous, as
anyone who's ever tried to run a search can attest to. And, to put it all
in context, best estimates say that only a fraction, maybe 20 - 40 % of what's
out there is actually making its way to the search engines.
Well ...
Here at DownStreet, we'd like to try to help. So
each issue, we post a few links in Working Together to sites that might interest
you. Sometimes the links will be related to one another ...
sometimes we'll just offer up a somewhat random sampling. In either case,
we think we might be able to help you find the kind of site you've been looking
for.
Of course, while we can't vouch for the fact that every link
we provide will be of interest to everyone, we do our best to filter out the
noise and the bustle. ...
We hope you enjoy the following sites as much as we do.
Useful Data on Communities ...
The following sites provide useful data on & for communities.
...
-
Vermont Community Data Bank
This offering comes from The Center for
Rural Studies [CRS] up at UVM. The site is
reasonably fast, especially considering that, in some
cases, we're dealing with large amounts of data
here. ...
Among the data? Social and Economic Indicators for
Vermont, Vermont Health ResourceNet: Health Indicators
& Resources, Vermont Population Projections,
Qualitative profiles for Selected Communities ... and a
curious entry entitled "A Gazetteer of Vermont
Places: Real and Imagined." ... And
there's a new entry, related to this month's Community
Service article -- Indications of Community --
entitled Vermont Indicators Online.
This data won't solve community problems. But it
could help to identify them more clearly ... and more
importantly, it could help to point us in the right
direction.
Rating **** [4 stars].
.
-
Vermont Community
Profiles: Addison Central
This link is actually to a Table of
Contents for a Report from the Addison Central
Supervisory Union, chosen as a representative example of
a community indicators project for Addison County.
...
The page lists nearly 70 community indicators for a
variety of goals -- from community involvement &
decision-making to health, schooling, family life, life
passages, and safety. Clicking on any of the items
to the right of the indicators brings up a page with
lots of charts, graphs, and stats to show how the
community fares in approaching its goals. ...
Among some of the indicators: Percent of eligible
population voting in general elections; Percent of youth
who report they are given useful roles in their
community; Percent early prenatal care; Percent of
kindergarteners fully immunized; School attendance rate
(average percent of days attended); Percent of youth who
report parents set clear rules and consequences; Rate of
court dispositions for delinquency; Percent of
population aged 65+ in poverty ... and many more.
This link provides one example of how communities can use indicators to help
assess health & welfare for a livable &
sustainable community.
Rating **** [4 stars].
.
-
Introduction to Community Indicators
This is the page on the Livable
Communities site that provides an overview of Community Indicators.
The site is reasonably fast ... and the info, very
useful. ...
The Intro provides a Background, information on the
concepts of Livability and Sustainability, the
Characteristics of Good Indicators, and a primer
entitled "How Can My Community Develop
Indicators?" In addition, there is an
overview and link to broad-based resources for
Suggested Indicators. These "Possible
Indicators" are arranged either by "The
Issues" {see this month's
Community Service article} or by what they refer
to as "The Framework" -- three major
categories, including "long-term endowments and
liabilities ... processes that increase or decrease
these endowments, and ...current results and three
subcategories for each category: economic,
environmental, and social." Both sets are
broken down by both national & local indicators.
The idea of livable & sustainable communities
seems to us to be a step in the right direction --
away from greed and short-term self-interest, and
toward the notion that we have kids to pass our
communities on to, and therefore, a responsibility to
pass along something that will continue to work down
the road. This site supports the effort.
Rating: ****1/2 [4-1/2 stars]. .
*******
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If you know of any links that you think are
worthwhile, why not send them along to ...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
...
If we agree, we'll be happy to include them
in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks.
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