Introduction

What are the ingredients of a healthy community?  Specifically, what are the factors that can be used to measure the health of Hall County, Georgia?  With its diversity of people and places, the health of a community must be evaluated using a broad course of study, measurement and observation.  This has been the task and responsibility of the Healthy Hall Steering Committee—to assess the health of Hall County as broadly and as comprehensively as possible.  Why?  To better understand the health of our community and what can be done to make it better.

Healthy Hall first completed a community health assessment in 1998.  In this 2003 assessment, Healthy Hall not only seeks to measures improvement in certain health indicators, and also provides new information and insight into the health of our community.  It is the desire of Healthy Hall's leadership to provide useful information that can be used by civic-minded organizations, community advocates, health agencies and others to have a positive impact on Hall County.

For 2003 Healthy Hall has joined forces with the Hall County Commission for Children and Families to ensure its assessment best meets the community's need for data and information.  Working together, these two organizations have endeavored to make this report comprehensive, useful and meaningful to a large number of potential users.

GOALS

The goals for the 2003 Healthy Hall community needs assessment are to:

• Provide authoritative, comprehensive information on community practices, needs and attitudes that define social capital and influence health and quality of life.

• Measure changes in health status and key health practices from the 1998 study.

• Involve a broad cross-section of community interests in the development of the assessment

• Organize reporting of community health data geographically and by school district to support the ability to facilitate improved planning and implementation of school and neighborhood initiatives.

• Provide a central source of community health information, such as a website, that also provides links to related state and national health data.

• Support the ability to evaluate data by race or cultural group, as well as by key demographic factors such as age, income and education.

RESEARCH METHODS

The following research methods were used in the completion of this assessment:

• A comprehensive telephone survey of 500 randomly selected homes in Hall County.  Efforts were made to ensure the polling provided samples based on the demographic profile of Hall County.

• Focus groups conducted among a cross-section of Hall County groups, including youth, senior adults, South Hall Countians and major ethnic groups.

• A written survey of youth behaviors and attitudes toward alcohol and drug use administered by Hall County Schools.

STUDY ORGANIZATION

The Healthy Hall Steering Committee has organized its evaluation around four major areas of inquiry—health, safety and security, connections to the community and confidence in the future.  Here are brief explanations of what these categories represent:

• Health - Without good physical health, no person or group can be truly healthy. To evaluate health in Hall County, the Healthy Hall effort measures access to care, personal health practices and attitudes that contribute to healthy lifestyles.

• Safety & Security - A sense of living at risk undermines the health of an individual, a family, a neighborhood and a community.  The Healthy Hall study seeks to measure citizens' attitudes toward risk and fear, as well astheir levels of confidence in the institutions that protect them.

• Connections To The Community - The very definition of community implies that people live together, get along and help one another.  The more a community is connected by living, working, serving and fellowshipping together, the more edifying and healthy it will be.  The Healthy Hall assessment seeks to measure the extent to which Hall Countians connect to one another, as well as some of the attitudes that keep people apart.

• Confidence In The Future - An essential element of a healthy community is a confidence that, whatever has taken place in the past, the future will be better.  A hopeful attitude is healthier than a pessimistic one.  The Healthy Hall study attempts to measure feelings of hope and optimism within the community.

Introduction 

Healthy Hall Members

Notes On Secondary Research

Hall County Survey Results

Who Responded To This Survey?

Assessment Findings:


Health

Safety & Security

Connections to the Community

Confidence in the Future