This document discusses the importance of validating official community data by directly observing local conditions and speaking to residents, as official sources may miss or misrepresent certain populations or aspects of the community. It recommends using techniques like oral history interviews and considering local news sources to gain a more accurate understanding of what is really happening, as the view from official reports is not always the same as the real-life view of the community.

1. What is Really Happening in the
Community
Validating Official Data
Anne Morris
Anne Morris and Associates, LLC
NADO Transportation Conference
Greenville, SC April 25, 2013

2. No one showed

3. Census
doesn’t pick
them up

4. Just a scruffy old field

5. Three generations live there

6. Take advantage of opportunities

7. Oral history may be all you have

8. Stepping into a hornet’s nest

9. Consider using color rather than
text

10. Find out the local news

11. Do they take Food Stamps

12. Its more than a Post Office

13. The view isn’t always the same