2013 Community Report Cards for local counties

In April, ACT Rochester released its 2013 Community Report Card, which showed how well the nine-county region compares to New York State in education, health, housing and six other areas.Today, ACT Rochester is releasing individual report cards for Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties. These County Report Cards indicate how each county is faring in the same nine topic areas compared to the state and the extent of long-term progress each has made since 2000. “ACT Rochester provides this data so that community leaders and activists can tackle pressing issues by prioritizing resources based on actual and credible numbers rather than anecdotal evidence. That’s the only way progress can be realized — and then measured,” says Ann M. Johnson, ACT Rochester director.In Seneca County, there is a lot to celebrate — population growth, a boost in revenue from tourism, and increases in jobs and average salaries over the last decade, and affordable housing for homeowners and renters. A relatively low share of county residents receives temporary assistance (welfare) and the county’s 27% decline between 2001 and 2011 is the largest in the region. However, students are lagging behind their peers across the state on most state tests and graduating at lower rates. While overall crime rates have declined, violent crime has seen an increase. The data on www.ACT Rochester.org is built around nine topic areas — Arts, Culture and Leisure; Children and Youth; Community Engagement; Economy; Education; Financial Self-Sufficiency; Health; Housing; and Public Safety. Each topic area contains a number of relevant indicators with current data that help to show what is happening. For example, voter participation is one indicator within the Community Engagement topic area and percent of people living in poverty falls under Financial Self-Sufficiency.The Community Report Cards aggregate date from more than 100 indicators to provide two comparisons by topic area — how each county’s performance compares to New York State and whether long-term trends, based on the data, show that a county is improving, declining, staying the same or is some mix of all three. These comparisons are explained through the use of symbols, colors and arrows to provide a quick, at-a-glance overview. Indicators are updated quarterly as new data becomes available.Below are the complete report cards for counties here in the central Finger Lakes covered by ACT…- ONTARIO COUNTY REPORT CARD– SENECA COUNTY REPORT CARD– WAYNE COUNTY REPORT CARD– YATES COUNTY REPORT CARD– Click here for a full list of county report cards