Around Town
In her April 4th blog, Sarah mentioned that we’re not going door-to-door collecting our neighborhood and residential satisfaction surveys (which was what we originally planned to do). Instead, we are using the Yoder Center and getting help from the Johnson Health Center. We’ve got surveys and collection boxes at both places, and we have been able to directly assist some citizens in the completion of the questionnaires. Since Johnson offers services to more than Tinbridge residents, we’re actually going to be able to collect and compare demographic and neighborhood satisfation data for a variety of Lynchburg communities. So far, our response rate (from approaching people individually) has been great. People want to be asked what they think of their houses and communities.
On April 2, we dropped our survey materials off at Johnson and met some of its very helpful staff. In the hour before we could show up at the Yoder Center, we stopped at the Starlight Cafe on the 500-block of 5th street to see area commercial development and squeeze in a table-top lecture on measures of income inequality. (This class was particularly keen on learning more about the Gini coefficient, and it wasn’t just the coffee talking! I’ve got to credit their interest to my colleague John Abell’s poverty assignment in another class.) After visiting Starlight, we headed to the Yoder Center to meet its director, Aubrey Barbour. We learned more about the Center and Tinbridge and got his support and advice on our survey and methods.
The following week, we visited Johnson Health Center to collect surveys, and two of us attended the monthly neighborhood meeting at the Yoder Center. We were given time to talk about our survey and administer it, and we chose to stay beyond that time. Before we were introduced, a police officer gave a crime report for the area and took questions and concerns from the attendees. Neighbors later spoke about the community garden, a visit from the Food Bank, and the upcoming Run for the Roses, a local race to raise funds for an extension to the Yoder Center. The extension will allow students who don’t have homework to play in the Center while not distracting those who do.
