Measuring Our Progress
The 2012 Midland County Community Report encompasses important and key indicators that can help describe community conditions relative to children and families, education, economic growth, health lifestyles, community safety, environmental conditions, and community civic engagement. The Community Report Card builds on the Health and Human Services Council of Midland 2012 Report Card of Top 10 Social Issues released on March 2012. The unranked Top 10 issues serve as a public genesis to assess Midland County in its development of its community and create goals that guide the further growth and vitality of the community that includes youth, families, the elderly, public institutions, and economic development. Goals can become measurable outcomes that can determine the direction of Midland County, help monitor progress, impact of community, and policy decisions that help service providers improve, coordinate, and analyze service delivery to residents of Midland County.
The 2012 Top 10 Social Issues are a result of a partnership between The Midland Area Community Foundation and Health and Human Service Council of Midland County to produce the community report card as an overview of health and human service conditions in Midland County; and which will serve as a base of evidence for community programming and planning. It was not intended to be a comprehensive assessment of the community but as an educational tool to educate and inform local, state, federal, and private and public interests, planning efforts and policy decisions about Midland County.
As you read this Midland County Report Card—which builds upon the foundation of the Top 10 Social Issues—we imagine that you will be able to have a robust picture of the Midland Community that leads to conversations that will allow readers to learn about the community, improve community life, and invest in their community. The Assessment creates a statistical picture of the human potential of Midland County, contextualizing it within Michigan, and when possible the United States through a use of federal, state, regional, and local data sources. Looking at the merit and worth (absolute and relative) is a complex undertaking with many stakeholders working from such a document, which includes many elements and to assess the capital (structural, human, social) more explicitly to incorporate change into the community. The Community Report Card for Midland County uses data to examine what can be done at a macro level, however this form of assessment works only when stakeholders build on the strengths of local people, recognizing that such people are already engaged in the development and maintenance of the community.
The objective of the Assessment was to explore the Top 10 Social Issues within the Contexts of “Measure(s)” and their “Importance” that provide frameworks to examine how the “How Midland County is Doing” compared with Michigan and Nationally, and what data profiles of each social issue could be examined within six key areas of community asset management utilized by other communities: (1) Intellectual and Social Development (2) Economy (3) Health Lifestyles (4) Safety (5) Environment and (6) Social Capital – Civic Engagement; which are similar to the Gallup Well-Being Index measures of six domains of well-being (www.well-beingindex.com). For this community asset assessment, the indicators of the six key areas above are integrated with the Top 10 Social issues to provide context for data that directly or indirectly impacts or is impacted by the Top 10 Social Issues. For this assessment, we rely on information from various sources, including but not limited to the federal, state, and regional governments and their agencies; non-governmental groups, committees, and commissioned reports and research.
In order to create a robust and comparative assessment of Midland County, the data collected is assessed in the following terms:
(1) Precision is more important to determine how Midland County “is doing” than the most current data (which can also be skewed by reporting changes, for example, a person might be arrested and charged with multiple offenses but convicted of only one. Thus, data is then retroactively changed after court proceedings that could take 2-3 years);
(2) Importance of Analyzing small populations such as Midland County (since much of the data is collected by census tracts, and many agencies combine census tracts to reach a minimum size of 50,000 and in most cases 100,000 persons for analysis);
(3) Examining patterns in smaller geographies because single case (e.g., Midland County) data is not available or aggregated with larger tracts (Midland is many times combined with surrounding counties, except for Saginaw, which is treated a single case); and
(4) Where data is the most reliable in providing the largest sample size of current information; while augmenting data used and published by agencies not released annually. The data analyzed within the 6 key indicators will provide the ability to monitor social and economic trends in local communities around the Top 10 Social Issues.
The 2012 Top 10 Social Issues are a result of a partnership between The Midland Area Community Foundation and Health and Human Service Council of Midland County to produce the community report card as an overview of health and human service conditions in Midland County; and which will serve as a base of evidence for community programming and planning. It was not intended to be a comprehensive assessment of the community but as an educational tool to educate and inform local, state, federal, and private and public interests, planning efforts and policy decisions about Midland County.
As you read this Midland County Report Card—which builds upon the foundation of the Top 10 Social Issues—we imagine that you will be able to have a robust picture of the Midland Community that leads to conversations that will allow readers to learn about the community, improve community life, and invest in their community. The Assessment creates a statistical picture of the human potential of Midland County, contextualizing it within Michigan, and when possible the United States through a use of federal, state, regional, and local data sources. Looking at the merit and worth (absolute and relative) is a complex undertaking with many stakeholders working from such a document, which includes many elements and to assess the capital (structural, human, social) more explicitly to incorporate change into the community. The Community Report Card for Midland County uses data to examine what can be done at a macro level, however this form of assessment works only when stakeholders build on the strengths of local people, recognizing that such people are already engaged in the development and maintenance of the community.
The objective of the Assessment was to explore the Top 10 Social Issues within the Contexts of “Measure(s)” and their “Importance” that provide frameworks to examine how the “How Midland County is Doing” compared with Michigan and Nationally, and what data profiles of each social issue could be examined within six key areas of community asset management utilized by other communities: (1) Intellectual and Social Development (2) Economy (3) Health Lifestyles (4) Safety (5) Environment and (6) Social Capital – Civic Engagement; which are similar to the Gallup Well-Being Index measures of six domains of well-being (www.well-beingindex.com). For this community asset assessment, the indicators of the six key areas above are integrated with the Top 10 Social issues to provide context for data that directly or indirectly impacts or is impacted by the Top 10 Social Issues. For this assessment, we rely on information from various sources, including but not limited to the federal, state, and regional governments and their agencies; non-governmental groups, committees, and commissioned reports and research.
In order to create a robust and comparative assessment of Midland County, the data collected is assessed in the following terms:
(1) Precision is more important to determine how Midland County “is doing” than the most current data (which can also be skewed by reporting changes, for example, a person might be arrested and charged with multiple offenses but convicted of only one. Thus, data is then retroactively changed after court proceedings that could take 2-3 years);
(2) Importance of Analyzing small populations such as Midland County (since much of the data is collected by census tracts, and many agencies combine census tracts to reach a minimum size of 50,000 and in most cases 100,000 persons for analysis);
(3) Examining patterns in smaller geographies because single case (e.g., Midland County) data is not available or aggregated with larger tracts (Midland is many times combined with surrounding counties, except for Saginaw, which is treated a single case); and
(4) Where data is the most reliable in providing the largest sample size of current information; while augmenting data used and published by agencies not released annually. The data analyzed within the 6 key indicators will provide the ability to monitor social and economic trends in local communities around the Top 10 Social Issues.
Disclaimer
The Report Card for Midland County, Michigan relies on information from various sources, including but not limited to the federal, state, and regional governments and their agencies; non-governmental groups, committees, and commissioned reports and research. In order to create a robust and comparative report between Midland County, Michigan, and the U.S. the Report Card that can be accessible to multiple users, we use publicly available data, which is critical for state and local policymakers and planners who need up-to-date information about their communities to evaluate the need for infrastructure, hospitals, schools and basic services, and to monitor social and economic trends in local communities.
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