People who work in Shelton or Oxford earn on average more than double than those who work in the rest of the Valley.
Schoolchildren are three times as likely to be “chronically absent” from class in Ansonia and Derby than in Oxford or Beacon Falls.
And the overall child poverty rate of 13 percent throughout the Valley more than doubles in Ansonia and Derby — to an eye-popping 30 percent.
Those are just a few of the findings contained in “The Valley Now: A 2015 Snapshot,” a 12-page report funded by the Valley Community Foundation.
The report is an early step in a multi-year process that will culminate next year with the release of a comprehensive “Community Index” of demographic, economic, education, health, housing and civic vitality trends within the region.
Article continues after the report.
The VCF is putting together the index to get a better idea of where the need for community help exists in the Valley.
About 30 citizens gathered Monday (June 22) at the Valley United Way office in Shelton to discuss the report and factors affecting quality of life in the region.
The advisory committee meeting was the first of several slated over the next nine or 10 months to put together information to be included in the Community Index.
Advisory committee members split into four workgroups, based on indicators by topic: economic opportunity, education, civic life, and health.
Article continues after photo of the education work group talking June 22.
Monday’s session was facilitated by Laura Downs of Morrison Downs Associates, Inc. in Milford.
“This has really become a Valley effort,” she said. “Everyone has chipped in.”
A timeline calls for the advisory committee to meet again in October. At that time members will be asked to identify community members to be interviewed for the Valley Community Index.
Downs said the group will be looking at statewide trends and how the Valley compares to other similarly sized regions.
The communities involved in the project are Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Seymour, and Shelton.
Sharon Closius, President and CEO, Valley Community Foundation, said, “I’m so overwhelmed by the participation in the Valley. All of these leaders here today are so engaged.”
Article continues after recording of Closius discussing the effort on Star 99.9’s “For The People” program, hosted by Connoisseur Media’s John Voket.
During the interview, Closius said the VCF needs the report to see where it can make the most difference in terms of distributing help.
“In order to do more strategic grantmaking, you really need to know what’s going on in the community,” Closius said.
As part of the process, DataHaven, a New Haven-based nonprofit that collects, interprets, and shares public data, will be conducting a statewide wellbeing survey the results of which will be incorporated into the community index report.
Click here to read more about that effort.
DataHaven Executive Director Mark Abraham and Project Manager Mary Buchanan were on hand Monday at the work group session.
The report will also help nonprofits zero in on where help is needed most in a more comprehensive way than the “snapshot” report, she said.
“We started thinking we were just going to have this snapshot be eight pages and before you knew it we were up to 12 and we could have easily done 16,” Closius said. “What the index is going to do is take the results of the wellbeing survey and then also incorporate all the updated data and really dive into more detail.”
Officials hope the community index report will be completed in spring 2016.
The VCF’s advisory committee for the community index includes representatives of: BHcare, Center Stage Theatre, City of Derby, Bureau of Youth Services, Down to Earth Consulting Solutions, Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, Griffin Hospital, Lower Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, Naugatuck Valley Health District, Shelton Economic Development Corporation, TEAM, Inc., The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, The WorkPlace, Inc, Town of Seymour, Valley Community Foundation, Valley Regional Adult Education, Valley United Way, Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
Editor’s note: The writer of this story participated in a work group at Monday’s meeting.
