What is the Hall LIFE Report and why do we publish it?

The Hall LIFE Report examines a variety of indicators designed to help describe community conditions relative to children and families.  As new businesses look at our community and compare Hall County to other areas, many of the indicators listed in the Hall LIFE Report are considered.  It becomes critical to use these indicators to educate and inform local and state planning efforts and public policy decisions.

What are community indicators and what are their purposes?

Community indicators are statistics and bits of information, collected regularly that tell stories about the place in which we live.  The indicators show us where we stand today, and also where we've been.  Like the gas gauge in your car, community indicators provide us information about something that is important to us, but that we can't see directly.  They don't provide a comprehensive illustration of an issue, but rather, tell one important part of the story. Community indicators can:

• Help policymakers make informed decisions
• Initiate and inform dialogue about the community
• Highlight positive trends so that they may be maintained
• Detect negative trends early so that they may be addressed

Goals of the Hall LIFE Report Project:

1. To increase public awareness of the challenges faced by children and families in Hall County.
2. To compile information that will be useful to government, education, law enforcement, public organizations, private industry and all citizens.
3. To educate public leaders about the problems faced by children and families.
4. To encourage community leaders and representatives to make children and families a top priority in budget and program decisions.
5. To develop and fuel an action agenda for children and families.
6. To establish a measure of accountability for the entire community with regard to outcomes for children and families.
7. To bring the various sectors of the community together to work on projects for children and families.
8. To get programs and systems that serve children and families to work together to achieve common results.

How were the indicators selected?

The indicators were selected by a group of local residents who volunteered their time to meet with local experts to discuss the best measures for various topic areas. The five result areas used in this report are currently the same as those used by the Georgia Family Connection Partnership as they produce and disseminate the annual KIDS COUNT report for the state of Georgia.  They are:
 

• Healthy Children
• Children Ready for School
• Children Succeeding in School
• Stable, Self-Sufficient Families
• Strong Communities

Working within the constraints of data availability, the committee and local resource people tried to pick about three to five indicators in each result area.  An effort was made to select indicators that reflected issues that were important to the committee, local resource people, and the community.  Therefore, the indicators in the Hall LIFE Report reflect many of the common values of our community.  It was decided that appropriate indicators must be:
 

• Relevant
• Valid
• Credible
• Measurable
• Consistent and Reliable
• Comparable
• Understandable