Our GIS workshops are designed for social service providers, researchers, planners or anyone that performs community analysis. We teach both workshops in all major cities and the demographics workshop is offered both live and as a part of our web workshops. Please click on the links below to find out specific information about each workshop.
Mapping Your Community: An Introduction to GIS and Community Analysis (Print General Flyer)
Upcoming GIS Workshops
Mapping New Mexico Communities - April 2008
Mapping Virginia Communities - March 2008
Mapping Florida Communities - March/April 2008
Mapping Michigan Communities - March/April 2008
Mapping Wisconsin Communities
Mapping Minnesota Communities
Mapping Idaho Communities
Mapping Nevada Communities
Mapping Indiana Communities
Mapping Nebraska Communities
Mapping North Carolina Communities
Mapping Georgia Communities
Mapping Kansas Communities
Mapping New York Communities
Mapping Maine Communities
Past GIS Workshops
Mapping DC Area Communities
Mapping Maine Communities
Mapping Arkansas Communities
Mapping Michigan Communities
Mapping Kansas Communities
Mapping Nevada Communities
Mapping Nebraska Communities
Mapping Idaho Communities
Mapping Indiana Communities
Mapping Texas Communities
Mapping Maryland Communities
Mapping Massachusetts Communities
Mapping Illinois Communities
Mapping Alaska Communities
Mapping California Communities
Mapping Colorado Communities
Mapping Oklahoma Communities
Mapping Pennsylvania Communities
Mapping Alabama Communities
Mapping Louisiana Communities
Mapping Ohio Communities
Workshop Overview
Participants will learn to use ArcGIS 9.2 to do the following:
Creating thematic maps
Participants will learn how to easily create
thematic maps of their own data and display
spatial trends in information.
Address mapping (geocoding)
Participants will learn to map addresses of their
clients, their projects or incidents.
Download and Map Census & American Community Survey data
Participants will learn to extract and map current Census data such as poverty, race, language, population,
transportation, education and workforce characteristics.
Participants will also learn to:
Conduct spatial queries
Download free shapefiles
Create well designed maps
- Mapping techniques transferable to all other communities.
- Exercises are designed for beginners.
- Intermediate Excel skills required.
Workshop Materials
- Comprehensive workbook (75 pages), which includes the presentation, exercises and reference worksheets,
- ArcGIS (ArcView 9.2) software 60-day trial CD set,
- Thirty day free access to new 2005 Tiger/Line geography files (converted to shapefiles) which include streets, zip codes, school districts, voting districts, census tracts and many other useful geographies
- Thirty day free access to our Analyzing Your Community: Local Demographic Analysis Online Workshop
Workshop Agenda
Lesson 1
Learn the basic functions of ArcGIS
Setting up ArcMap
Adding data and geography layers
Working with Layouts
Lesson 2
Introduction to American Factfinder
Downloading Census and American Community Survey data to map
Downloading free geography files including tracts, zip codes, blocks and several others
Preparing Census tract data in Excel to import into ArcGIS
Lesson 3
Joining data and geography files
Creating thematic (color shaded) maps to display data
Working with legends and interval breaks
Lesson 4
How to do common spatial queries
Lesson 5
Where to download free business addresses
Geocoding (address mapping)
Lesson 6
Elements of good maps including colors, fonts and map must haves
Critique of several maps
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