Section 1: The Short Report

I. Acknowledgement

Introduction

This is the executive summary of a community assessment for Cortland County. It summarizes a 110-page report entitled, Cortland Counts: An Assessment of the Health and Well Being in Cortland County. The larger document presents data gathered during the first phase of a three-stage community process. The second stage will be to share and assess this information with the community. During the third stage, Cortland County will set health and well being priorities for our future.

Combined with the report card that follows, this executive summary is an integral part of Cortland Counts. It is also meant to be a stand-alone document for general distribution to the community. The larger report, Cortland Counts, may be viewed on the web (www.cortlandcopc.org), at local libraries or obtained from the Seven Valleys Health Coalition, 17 Main St., Cortland, NY 13045 (607-753-3797). Reactions to this report may also be sent to this address and we invite and welcome them.

This assessment was initiated by several key community organizations that usually conduct such assessments on their own. However, in an effort for a more comprehensive and integrated study, the Seven Valleys Health Coalition, the Cortland Memorial Hospital, the Cortland County Health Department, the United Way for Cortland County, and the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) of SUNY Cortland combined their resources to study the assets and needs of our county.

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The Report Card

The report card condenses the research done between January and June 2001 by a lead investigator, Andrea Rankin, MS, and the students of Dr. Richard Kendrick in his Research Methods II classes at SUNY Cortland's Sociology Department. It allows us to compare our data to other localities as it provides a set of indicators for Cortland County. for each of these five study areas:

• Health and Safety
• Social Cohesion, Culture and Recreation
• Employment, Economy and Welfare
• Housing and Environment
• Positive Development Through the Life Stages

The Federal government has a set of health goals to be accomplished by the year 2010 — Healthy People 2001. We may use their goals and /or create our own. We have used the apple symbol to indicate a favorable status for the particular indicator. A magnifying glass suggests a potential problem area. The arrows in the last column, "Cortland County Goal," indicates the direction of the goal but does not, as yet, give an exact number goal. This will be a job for the community.

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Cortland Counts: An Assessment of the Health and Well Being of Cortland County offers...

• A set of Cortland County indicators compared to those of the 57 upstate counties combined; to the 44 defined rural counties; to the region; to the state; to the country; or to state or federally established goals.
   
• More detailed information on these indicators.
   
• Subjective data from focus groups, community visioning, and surveys. 
   
• Objective data about the services and capacities of the county’s human service agencies. This information is primarily from the recently completed Cortland County United Way survey which is done every 5 years

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This comprehensive community assessment draws from and complements the efforts of...

• The US Department of Health and Human Service's Healthy People 2010
• The National Public Health Performance Standards Program for Local Public Health System Performance
• New York State's Public Health Priorities
• Cortland County's Business Network, Business Development Corporation and Industrial Development Agency
• The Cortland Business Network and the Chamber of Commerce
• The Comprehensive Plans of the County and City of Cortland

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You can assist with this assessment project

This report will be updated periodically to monitor changes in the health and well being in Cortland County. Please complete the evaluation at the end of this document so that we will have even greater community participation in the next report. "Community indicators don't just monitor progress; they help make it happen" (The Community Handbook, Redefining Progress, 1997). This is your report. You can make it happen. Together we can better chart the future for Cortland County.

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