Link of the Week: Sept 9 - 15
Online Maps
Here's another little-known part of the U.S. Census Bureau site that is worth knowing about — its geography section. This link will be helpful to anyone who has ever tried to find data about a certain neighborhood, or any other geographic area that the Census does not list by name. The Census Bureau Geography page has links to free, downloadable maps of virtually every area in the country. By viewing these maps, you can learn your neighborhood's "Census Tracts" or "Block Groups" — these are numbers corresponding to a given geography. Once you have these numbers, you can use them to look up the data you need. Still confused? The Census Bureau Map Products page is a good place to start searching for maps, and it has "How-To" files. Reference Resources for Understanding Census Bureau Geography is also helpful if you can't tell your Block Groups from your Census Tracts.

Soros Justice Media Fellows Awards:
Seeking funds for an in-depth journalism project dealing with criminal justice? The Soros Justice Media Fellowship seeks dynamic journalists working in print, photography, radio, and documentary film and video to improve the quality and depth of media coverage of incarceration and criminal justice issues. Fellows devote up to one year to research, write, produce, and widely disseminate stories. Awards are up to $45,000. Click here to go to the Soros page and view more info about the awards.

Media Forum Follow-Up
We have now posted the handouts that were distributed by journalists at our recent media forum. Journalist contact information is now posted also, if you want to follow up with any of the people you met at the forum (or if you live in the Asheville area and want to see what you missed!).

Link/Article of the Week Archives
For your convenience, we've begun archiving past weeks' featured links and articles.

The Missing Link
Have any suggestions for us regarding next week’s link? Or is there information you seek, but you can’t find a helpful link? Let us know! If others would benefit from the information, we just may track down a link for you, or use your suggestion as Link of the Week.

Contribute Online!
It is now possible to contribute to FIRE online using your credit card. Please help us out, we can't be effective without your financial support! In the future, we will also be using similar technology, provided by PayPal, to enable you to pay for our upcoming events from our website with ease.

<<<<<<Hey, What's That?
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Are you enjoying our "link of the week" and "article spotlight" features? Please let us know.

Welcome to FIRE, a non-profit organization which provides community media resources to the Appalachian region. You can use the search box on this page to search our online archive of media outlets throughout the area. If you are a local journalist (or want to be), visit the "Resources for Journalists" section. You'll find resources that will improve your community reporting skills and will enable area residents to easily locate your published articles online.

FIRE's purpose is to promote citizen participation and community-based media. Please contact us if you would like to participate in our programs or if you have any feedback that will improve this Web site.