Report shows how critical community issues stack up in Dan River Region

A report card that provides data about regional gains or losses in five key areas — education, financial stability, economic vitality, health and civic engagement — has been released through a cooperative effort of the United Way of Danville-Pittsylvania County, the Danville Regional Foundation and the Future of the Piedmont Foundation.

At a news conference Tuesday, Patrick Jinks, United Way’s president and CEO, said the goal was to provide an “essential tool to transform our region,” that organizations throughout the region could use to plan their approach to solving community issues.

Jinks said the report card measures 21 indicators across the five categories, but “by no means covers everything,” and includes no strategic recommendations.

Basically, Jinks said, achieving a good quality of life requires three things: to be educated well enough to get jobs that will support a family, income to sustain that family; and good health.

He said he expects different organizations to use the data in different ways because “we all have our missions to achieve,” but that all programs would improve the quality of life in the region in their own ways.

Linwood Wright, of the Future of the Piedmont Foundation, said it was obvious that aggressive measures needed to be taken when tobacco and textiles left the region, and he hopes the report will help organizations in the region decide how they can best help the community.

“Hopefully, a lot of other folks in the community will choose areas of interest and action,” Wright said.

Karl Stauber, president and CEO of the Danville Regional Foundation, pointed out that the report compares numbers from several years ago to the most recent figures available, and then stacks them up against statewide numbers — all of which shows trends that are improving or need attention, he said.

For instance, in Danville and Pittsylvania County, third-grade reading proficiency has improved dramatically since 2003, rising in Danville from 58.24 percent to 81 percent and in Pittsylvania County from 63.92 percent to 87 percent, while state figures rose from 72.17 percent to 86 percent.

Caswell County, N.C., saw quite the reverse, with both the county and the state dropping from the mid-80s in 2005 to 53.3 percent in 2008.

Having this information will help “target opportunities for additional investments of time and energy,” Stauber noted.

Other statistics shown on the report card include rising per capita income in the region that is offset by the fact that it is still well below the state average; increases in high school graduation rates while seeing the poverty rate increase as well; improvements in heart attack and stroke rates and increases in obesity rates.

“We hope it will be used by many organizations to track how we are doing as a region, and where we are making progress — or not,” Stauber said.

The full report is available on the Danville Regional Foundation’s Web site at http://danvilleregionalfoundation.org