FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2000
Contact: Michael Ruane
(714) 834-2307
Community Indicators
Report Released A Look at OC's Economic and Social Health
(Santa Ana) -The County
of Orange, Office of Strategic Affairs today released
the first Orange County Community Indicators Report. The
document, which is expected to become an annual report,
is an assessment of the economic and social well-being
of the county.
"This report will evolve as we become more practiced
at finding the indicators that best reflect the health
of Orange County," said Michael M. Ruane, assistant
County Executive Officer and project director for the
initial report. "Our next step is to work with the
business community, non-profit organizations, Orange County
cities and other community leaders to create future reports
through ongoing collaboration, developing goals and tracking
our progress."
The report measures factors which contribute to sustaining
community vitality and a healthy economy with 42 indicators
grouped into seven categories:
Economic and Business Climate
Technology
Education
Health and Human Services
Public Safety
Environment
Civic Engagement
The indicators are objective measurements that reveal
whether key community attributes, such as housing affordability,
technological innovations, fourth grade math and reading
scores, health insurance coverage, criminal activity,
and beach closures, are increasing, decreasing or staying
the same.
"Orange County's United Way is very excited about
the Indicator Report and its usefulness," said Maria
Chavez Wilcox, President of Orange County's United Way.
"When we have the best data available, we can better
gauge the impact our dollars are having in improving people's
lives. As the largest private funder of health and human
services in the county, our participation in efforts like
this is extremely important as we identify the county's
greatest needs for funding allocations."
Chuck V. Smith, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors,
highlighted the report in his recent state of the county
address. "This report is intended to build on and
unite other indicator efforts in the county so that we
may jointly take this effort to the next level,"
he said. "The County and its partners are launching
what will hopefully broaden into an ongoing, and innovative
process of community self-evaluation."
The Community Indicators Report was compiled by a collaborative
team spearheaded by the County of Orange. The specific
indicators were selected to reflect countywide interests
and impacts. One of the criteria for selection of indicators
was access to data that is reliable and available over
the long term, so that trends can be identified. The report
can be found online at www.oc.ca.gov under "Innovative
Government." To obtain additional copies of the report,
or to provide feedback, call the CIP hotline at 714/834-7257
or e-mail questions or comments to ocindicators@ceo.hoa.co.orange.ca.us
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