2002 Community Assessment
4/7/2003
Despite the many things that make Wake County "a great place to live, work, learn and play," the County faces several challenges, including infant mortality, teen pregnancy, smoking, school dropout rates, homelessness, and significant gaps in needs and resources.
These are some of the concerns addressed in the 2002 Wake County Community Assessment, endorsed Monday by the Board of Commissioners as a planning document for the delivery of services to Wake County citizens.
In creating the report, Wake County Human Services worked with such community partners as Healthy Wake Coalition to conduct a series of community forums and surveys to identify residents' chief areas of concern.
"Our community assessment looks at the physical, behavioral, economic and environmental health of Wake County," said Wake County Human Services Director Maria Spaulding. "More importantly, it tells us where we and our partners can focus action plans to do the most good."
Of the issues raised in the assessment, citizens chose to focus on and develop action plans around eight priorities:
|
· child overweight |
· adult obesity |
|
· the ability to attain basic needs |
· housing |
|
· substance abuse |
· mental health |
|
· air quality |
· land use |
Healthy Wake Coalition, a group of local agencies, community-based organizations, and citizens brought together to focus resources on targeted health problems, will be leading the implementation effort over the next six months with the help of Wake County Human Services' Community Initiatives staff.
"We want to garner the best resources we possibly can to address the priorities identified in the report," said Lana Dial of Healthy Wake. "We need to find out and engage who in our community is best able to address each of these concerns."
The N.C. Division of Public Health Consolidated Agreement requires that all local health departments conduct a community health diagnosis every four years. The Wake County Community Assessment took place between April and December 2002. Primary data was collected from 730 Wake County citizens through 15 focus groups, five community meetings, and 520 surveys. Additionally, secondary (pre-existing) data was collected and compiled from at least seven data sources.
The report looks at the County's demographics, geography, and history. The majority of the report is divided into four key issue areas: physical health, economic health, special populations, and environmental health. Each of the divisions addresses multiple issues. For each issue, information is provided on impact, contributing factors, data, disparities, residents' concerns, resources, gaps/unmet needs and emerging issues.
The 2002 Wake County Community Assessment is available at www.wakegov.com, and an executive summary of the nearly 200-page document is available upon request. Hard copies of the full report may be obtained, for $10 each, by contacting:
Sylvia Southerland
Wake County Human Services
10 Sunnybrook Road
Raleigh, NC 27610
(919) 250-4550
back to current news items