ARTS 292: ARTISTIC COLLABORATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (Professor Griffiths)

The U.S. Census Bureau is the original source of most demographic data about U.S. localities.

The Census Bureau's web site is enormous, amazing, and intimidating, and it may take a while to learn your way around.  For this course's assignment, the American FactFinder database should be most helpful.

Entering the name buena vista will lead to an array of categories of data, beginning with "Population," but including 9 other categories, such as "Race and Hispanic Origin."   Each of these displays basic information and includes links to much more detailed materials.

A Virginia state government agency, the Virginia Employment Commission, produces "Community Profiles" which incorporate Census data and other sources into reports on local areas.   You can use this VEC page to generate such reports for Lexington, Buena Vista, and Rockbridge by using the "Counties and Cities" option.

Here are links to several relevant studies by students in W&L's Shepherd Program about the Rockbridge/Buena Vista/Lexington area. 

• Understanding the Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders in Rockbridge Area and the Need for Health Reform
• Socioeconomic and Geographical Inequalities in Mental Health Combining Social and Health Sector Perspectives
• Rockbridge Poverty Assessment 2008
• Obesity, Physical Activity, and Health Implications in the Low-Income Community
• Women's Reproductive Health in Rockbridge County: A Community-Based Research Project
• Best Practices of Care Coordination Report: Rockbridge
• MAPPing Healthcare of the Physically Disabled in Rockbridge County, VA: A Community Based Research Project
• Underutilization of Preventive Diabetes Care Among the Poor: Barriers and Consequences
• Community Collaboration

The W&L Department of Journalism and Mass Communications produces The Rockbridge Report, with multimedia news stories about the local community:  Buena Vista  |  Lexington |  Rockbridge County

There are zillions of sources out there which provide data on voting at various levels of government in the U.S.   For this course assignment, we recommend an official government source -- the Elections Database from the Virginia Board of Elections.

Use the "Explore the Data" box to select the date(s) of the election(s) you want to investigate.  

The first level of results you get will be state-wide, but you can click on the results in the "Candidates" column to generate a "See Details for this Election" link.  There you can find results for localities such as Buena Vista.