Executive Summary

The purpose of this "Public Status Report on Children and Families in Hall County, Georgia" is to provide policy stakeholders, public agency program personnel, private providers and community members with updated indicator data to inform current policy discussions and decision-making.  

The Hall LIFE Report identifies the status of Leading Indicators For Excellence.  The five topic areas used in this report are currently the same as those used by the Family Connection Partnership at the state level as they produce and disseminate the annual KIDS COUNT data for the state of Georgia.  

Overall, the indicators suggest that since the mid 1990s Hall County continues to make positive strides in the health and well-being of its children and families.  Despite many gains in the quality of life reflected in the indicators, there continue to be racial and ethnic disparities, indicating a need for focused improvement in several areas.  A summary of the data for each indicator grouping is given on an Overview page in each section.  This overview page is intended to give you some insights and some of the highlights - some good news and some news that is not so good - about that indicator grouping.  

As Hall County struggles with and addresses the different issues that affect the quality of life of all of its residents, it is our sincere desire that the Hall LIFE Report will be used to support informed decisions toward a shared vision of our community.  This report is also intended to provide perspective and create questions - questions around what our community can do to ensure that we have the data and benchmarks to demonstrate progress in our children's and families' well-being.  We believe that these indicators will be a useful tool to measure the status of our quality of life and the progress being made to improve it.

Hall County is a great place to live and we hope that this report will give you a look at today - with a focus on the future.  It is our hope that this report provides the reader with information that moves them to action... for our children, for our families, for our community, for the future.

We hope the Hall LIFE Report can help identify early warning signs, stimulate community dialogue about positive or negative trends, encourage resident responsibility and accountability, and promote continuous improvement in Hall County.

Wendy Glasbrenner
Chair, Hall County Family Connection Network

Mary G. Parks
Coordinator, Hall County Family Connection Network

Jacki Wallace
President and Chief Professional Officer, United Way of Hall County, Inc.

Carol Williams
Senior Vice President, Community Impact, United Way of Hall County, Inc.