CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Statistical Abstract for the Greater Waterville Area

Diamond 221

One key aspect of a thriving community is dedicated service organizations. These organizations, however, are often stretched thin for funding. To deal with this, many will apply for grants from the government and other charitable organizations. These grants are in high demand, thus the selection committees have to make tough choices of who will receive additional funding. To aid in their decision, selection committees require a variety of data surrounding the community seeking aid. This report assembles an array of data on the local population to be available for use in this type of grant application by providing details on the composition of the Waterville community. A wide array of different factors could be relevant to different community organizations. The majority of the data is taken or derived from US Census and Maine State government publications. In the original reports relevant information can be difficult to locate. Finding the necessary data for grant applications can be a cumbersome process, especially if the applicants are volunteer based. The goal of this report is to eliminate this problem and make information on the community accessible. Five aspects of the community were examined and reported on: crime, education, households, race and wealth. Each of these has direct implications on the community environment. Crime rates indicate the safeness of the community. Education levels are key to local students advancement in society. Households and wealth indicate the quality of life in the community. Race helps illustrate who makes up the community. By providing a centralized location for data surrounding the greater Waterville area for community organizations, we hope to aid service organizations in their mission to continue to improve Waterville and the surrounding towns.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/411