Regional Well-Being

The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) has released the Regional Well-Being Index, a single measure of “Well-Being” in Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties and the Mid-Hudson region as a whole, based upon selected economic, environmental and social indicators, combined in accord with rigorous statistical standards.

According to this first report, “Well-Being” in the Mid-Hudson Valley ranks at 50 on a scale of 0 to 100. For Ulster County, the ranking was 57; Dutchess County, 51; Orange County, 47; and Sullivan County, 41. This compares to a median score of other similar counties in New York state of 46.

Additionally, CRREO’s 2010 Regional Well-Being report separately measures on a scale of 0 to 100 conditions in the four counties and the region in the areas of Economy, Education, Environment, Community & Equity, Governance, Health, Arts & Culture, and Safety and presents more detailed snapshots in such regional areas of interest as Community Supported Agriculture, Stream Bio-Monitoring, Women in Government, How Municipal Websites Inform Citizens and Premature Mortality.

These scores provide baselines from which future trends in Regional Well-Being and in specified areas will be measured by CRREO, informing policy makers and advising citizens of how their governments and communities are doing. The major data sets developed for this project, which will be regularly updated, provide an additional resource for the region, and a basis for special in-depth analysis of prioritized projects.

The Regional Well-Being Project was launched at CRREO in 2008 with support from the United States Department of Education, obtained with the support of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, to identify shared community values in the Mid-Hudson region, and develop ways of measuring the Mid-Hudson Valley communities’ broadly-accepted social, economic and environmental character and allow the tracking of change through time. The research team and community advisory group assembled for this endeavor, identified in the report, includes members of the CRREO staff, SUNY New Paltz faculty and students, and a diverse group of community leaders. The team participated in extensive deliberations in order to articulate, prioritize and measure progress toward shared values.

"We hope this first Regional Well-Being report will dramatize how much a regional vision in the Mid-Hudson Valley is broadly shared, and provide a continuing agreed focus on how we may together progress toward agreed goals," said CRREO director Gerald Benjamin. "In particular, I wish to thank KT Tobin Flusser for her terrific leadership of this effort. CRREO at SUNY New Paltz looks forward to continued involvement with citizens and community leaders throughout the region in building Regional Well-Being in the Hudson Valley."

“Our goal is to inform both citizens and policy makers in the discussion of choices facing our region,” said Tobin Flusser, assistant director of CRREO. “We want our work to be part of the decision-making and policy-making discourse.”

This initial Regional Well-Being report will be distributed to local government decision makers, including county executives, county legislators, mayors, city councils, town, village and school board members. It includes results for each county, an analysis of the region as a whole, the index, indicator subset data and special in-depth analysis on prioritized topics. Regularly appearing follow-up reports will be central to the continuing work of CRREO.

To download a PDF version of the Regional Well Being report, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/crreo/regional_well-being_2010.pdf

For more information, contact CRREO at x2901 or crreo@newpaltz.edu.