What is available on this Web site?

Community indicator data and related information are available.

Community indicator data include data for Montgomery County and — depending on the indicator — data for the nation, the state of Ohio, the other large counties in Ohio, Zip Codes, Census Tracts, jurisdictions and/or school districts within Montgomery County.

The related information includes other data elements associated with each Outcome (see below), the Annual Reports of the Montgomery County Family and Children First Council (FCFC), reports from the FCFC Outcome Teams, and analyses which go "Behind the Numbers" of some of the indicator data.

What is the Family and Children First Council (FCFC)?

In Montgomery County the FCFC is considered the lead collaborative for health and human services. It is composed of community leaders that as a team investigate, monitor, and advance selected attributes of a healthy community. By state law each county in Ohio is required to have an FCFC.

What are "outcomes" and "indicators"?

Outcomes are conditions of well-being and, by their nature, are general and descriptive. The Montgomery County FCFC has adopted six community outcomes: Healthy People, Young People Succeeding, Stable Families, Positive Living for Special Populations, Safe and Supportive Neighborhoods, and Economic Self-Sufficiency.

Indicators are quantifiable attributes of an outcome. Because outcomes are not directly measurable, the FCFC has chosen some indicators that are. The reasoning is that if a community's indicators are moving in the desired direction from year to year, then it is making progress toward achieving the related outcome.

How do I conduct a search?

First, choose and click on one of the 6 outcomes from the menu on the left-hand side of any page.

Second, select the indicator or other data item you wish to search.

Third, complete the search form with as much detail as your search needs.

Finally, click the 'Display' or 'Display Results' button. On some Indicators, you will also see a 'Download' button. By clicking it you will be able to save the entire data set to your computer.

If you need to return to the Home page or would like to navigate to the other pages of the site, simply choose from the menu at the top of any page.

How can I obtain U.S. Census Bureau Information?

The U.S. Census Bureau is a prime source for population, demographic, housing and economic data, and American FactFinder is a powerful way to access that data.

Where are the data obtained for this Web site?

The sources for the community indicator data and the other data can be found by clicking the “Definition and Source” button on the Indicator page as well as on the search results page.

Whom can I contact about the information on the Web site?

You can call the Office of Family and Children First at (937) 225 – 4695 or you can send your questions, comments or feedback to us using the contact form link above.

Can I download these data?

Yes. Whenever you see a 'Download' button, you can click it and save the data to your computer. The Download button shows directly at the bottom of some Indicators pages and on all search results pages.

NOTE: If you choose more than 9 years, the results cannot be displayed on a graph due to size constraints. Instead you must download the data in a table.

Similarly, if you choose more than 16 items from the selection controls (not including years), you will be asked to choose fewer items due to size constraints.

Can I make copies of the graphs on this site?

Yes, you can copy and paste the image of a graph by right clicking and selecting 'Save Picture As...', or by dragging onto a document.

Are there other sites like this one I can visit?

Yes, you can visit other sites with content similar to the information on this site by visiting our Resources page.

What do the trend arrows represent?

Each indicator (or other data) has a DESIRED direction in which the community wants the value to move. In most cases it is intuitively obvious what the desired direction is; for example, we want high school graduation rates to go up and we want violent crime rates to go down. In cases where it might not be obvious we explicitly state it.

The SHORT-TERM trend is determined by comparing the most recent available data with the data from the previous year. It is considered to be in the desired direction if either the value or the rank has moved that way, or if the value has remained unchanged. (The rank refers to Montgomery County's rank whenever values for the other large counties in Ohio are available, with the values sorted so that the first ranking is the most desired.)

The HISTORICAL trend is determined by the general direction in which Montgomery County's value has been moving over the years.

How was this site developed?

This site was developed by Randy Brown, Web Administrator for Public Health -- Dayton & Montgomery County (PH-D&MC) under a contract between the Montgomery County Office of Family and Children First and PH-D&MC.

Several teams of undergraduate students from the University of Dayton School of Business Administration had designed and developed earlier versions of this site as part of the Management Information Systems capstone course: David Ausdenmoore, Russ Hartings, Beth Kelley and Matt Rolfes; Brendan Jacksits, Jon Kurtanich and Bobi Kutemperor; Jack Fontana, Kevin Lamb and Thomas Sirmans; and Darren Geiser, Nicholas Morton and Letitia Sharp.