United Way, Federation release new Social Indicators study on the status of education, employment, income in Northeast Ohio

(Cleveland, Ohio) April 14, 2003

The Federation for Community Planning and United Way Services today released Education, Employment & Income, the first of six new volumes of the Social Indicators series. The series, which provides descriptive information about the health and social conditions of people living in the 94 municipalities and neighborhoods of Cuyahoga County, serves as a major social service planning tool for Greater Cleveland.

The first book covers a new topic for the series. See pdf file with higlights. The remainder of the volumes to be published in 2003 will be updates of earlier volumes on the status of Children and Families, Older Persons, Housing, Community Health, and Public Safety. The geographic coverage area of the new books has been expanded to include selected data from surrounding counties. New maps and tables also have been added.

"The Social Indicators series is not designed to predict causes or provide solutions," said Stephen D. Williger, chair of the Federation's Board of Directors and partner of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP. "Rather, this joint project offers reliable information to be used in program planning and resource allocation, to serve as a general reference on the status of communities, and to function as an educational tool in advocacy efforts."

"We intend the information provided in Social Indicators to continue to be used in a positive way - to encourage development of public policies that improve our community," said Alex Machaskee, chairman of the United Way Board of Directors and president and publisher of The Plain Dealer. "The initial release of the Social Indicators reports served as a valuable resource to the Community Vision Council in establishing Greater Cleveland's first health and human services agenda within this public-private partnership initiated by United Way."

Indicators included in the series are chosen for their relevance to human service planners and providers, their ability to enable measurements over time, the consistency of their meanings, and their conformity with rigorous collection and reporting standards. Only secondary source data are used; no unique data collection is undertaken specifically for this project.

Current volumes of the Social Indicator series are being used by health and social service planners and providers, funders, and public officials, as well as by the Community Vision Council.

Executive summaries of all volumes of the Social Indicators series will be available on United Way's Web site www.uws.org and from the Federation for Community Planning at www.communitysolutions.com, which also has the full reports.

Joining United Way Services and the Federation as community partners in the Education, Employment & Income volume are The Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Northern Ohio Data and Information Service of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Project managers are Mark Salling, Ph.D. (Federation for Community Planning) and Edwin A. Balcerzak, Ph.D. (United Way Services). Lead authors include Federation staff Salling, Richard Marountas, Terry Lenahan, George D. Weiner, Ph.D., and Joseph G. Ahern.

More information on the Social Indicators series is available from the Federation for Community Planning at (216) 781-2944 and United Way Services at (216) 436-2211.