Easily accessible and up-to-date statistical information for the Dan River Region regarding the regional and state-wide trends in educational quality, financial stability, economic vitality, health status, and civic capacity is provided in this report card. It is a tool for the widespread dissemination of information, so the region’s citizens can access information concerning regional trends for community development.

The region’s educational and civic capacities show incremental progress toward achieving states’ averages. In the assessed educational and civic sectors, percentages have positively increased. While the region has yet to reach state averages, the trajectory of these two areas remains on track. With such movement forward, an increasing regional competitiveness becomes imminent. One caveat exists, however, with regard to Danville’s early childhood scholastic preparedness; because Danville remains in the bottom percentile of the state assessment, ranking 125 out of 129.

While educational quality and civic capacity have positively increased, this report cannot conclusively determine the influential scope of these sectors. Specifically, methods used in this report fail to review non-traditional aspects of educational quality. For example, the report card does not measure the educational system’s ability to foster innovation nor meet the occupational demands of the region. Thus, the report may unintentionally present an overly positive depiction of the region’s educational system.

With regard to civic capacity, the quality of non-profits has been measured in terms of number of organizations and their respective revenues. While these are adequate assessment criteria, the impact of non-profits on the region cannot be conclusively determined from these static figures. The report card does not capture volunteer hours or faith-based activities in the region. As a result, the quality of non-profit organizations may actually be higher than presented in the report. Because of these factors, subsequent reviews of the region should employ more holistic forms of assessment.

From the gathered data, the Dan River Region currently remains below the state average in numerous assessments. Furthermore, during the assessment period, the region has not made significant progress in certain assessment areas. While achieving the state average remains a long-term goal, yearly progress in each domain remains paramount to community-wide transformation. Of particular importance, the report creators found differences between Danville and Pittsylvania County in a number of assessments. As a result, the region’s leadership should seek to increase cooperation and communication to promote regional progress of the city and the county toward achieving the state average within the same time frame.

For this assessment period, community-wide health status remains in contrast with regional transformation. Specifically, obesity rates remain higher than the state average, infant mortality percentages of both Danville and Pittsylvania County remain unstable and unpredictable, incidence of heart attacks and strokes have failed to significantly decrease, and teen pregnancy rates remain above the state average. Because health regionally is negative in these specific areas, the region’s leaders should direct interventions at improving residents’ health. Industries evaluate a community’s health status in choosing an area in which to relocate, thus health status remains instrumental in the cultivation of a competitive advantage.

Additionally, the economic vitality of the region remains a point of concern. The region’s weekly wages, unemployment rates, and non-dependent population distribution place the region at odds with state averages, lowering the possibility of creating a self-sustaining community. Furthermore, the economic vitality of the region inevitably affects the financial stability of the area. While the increasing regional stability deserves attention, this report recommends interventional strategies that target improving regional economic conditions.

Mission
To provide the community with the most up-to-date statistical information regarding the region’s economic and cultural trajectory.

Goal
Design a report card that employs easily discernible and highly accurate information in five key dimensions of community status. The information provided in the Report Card should be accessible to the general public and should originate from continuously updated sources.

Recommendations
This report advocates four recommendations for future community development.

1. The leaders of the Dan River Region should focus intervention efforts on increasing both the health status and economic vitality of the region, because these two areas dramatically impact community development. Though judged separately on this report card, these two sectors are often interdependent. Thus, intervention strategies should simultaneously incorporate both regional aspects.
2. Cross-regional communication should be established and maintained, so the region can progress at equal intervals across all assessments. Given the discrepancies between Danville and Pittsylvania County on a number of researched criteria, the region currently displays less than advantageous communicative relationships.
3. Designers of subsequent Report Cards should investigate alternative means to assess the region’s educational quality and civic capacity. While the investigated aspects provide empirically valid and imperative information, the inherently transformative nature of these sectors cannot be conclusively determined. Thus, it is the opinion of the writers of this report that the region’s education system may show less influence when assessed by non-tradition measures of success. Furthermore, the civic capacity may be more influential than presented in this report.
4. Future community reports should compare the region’s trend with similar geographic areas. While comparing to the state average is informative, the most applicable assessments may be ascertained from comparing the Dan River Region to localities with similar economic situations. Because an already existing community-wide report card is lacking, this report compared the region to the state average as a means to establish an initial assessment database. Future report cards should build upon this framework and incorporate other regions of interest.

Impact
Potential impacts from the Report Card remain diverse. Specifically, the Report Card can serve as a point of collective information dissemination by which community leaders, organizers, and citizens can remain informed concerning regional trends in community development. Furthermore, annual progress reports can relay information regarding the efficacy of various interventions, allowing community organizers to reorient strategies to appropriately meet the region’s demands. Finally, the production of a yearly report card can impart imperative information to citizens, allowing citizens to become involved in the progress of their community.