ABOUT
​Our mission is to measurably improve public health through facilitation of targeted community driven initiatives.
CACTC aims to address large scale public health issues, such as substance use, mental health, and literacy, in Central New York by employing an evidence-based approach using community-focused epidemiological surveillance. We investigate factors like age, gender, geography, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status to understand their impact on health outcomes. Collaborating with communities and stakeholders, CACTC works to support equitable health outcomes for individuals and families by identifying and addressing risk and protective factors. The primary focus lies in reducing health disparities, comprehending their causes, and implementing evidence-based solutions. CACTC fosters community collaboration, implements and scales up initiatives, develops data infrastructure, and coordinates health communications to build healthier communities in Central New York, while also addressing social determinants of health.
CACTC is an independent nonprofit organization that equips Central New York communities with insights and strategies to enable them to improve the health of people and families.
Early on, CACTC focused on evidence-based public health approaches to prevent youth problem behaviors including underage drinking, tobacco use, violence, delinquency, school dropout and substance use. Our work has expanded to cover data-driven public health initiatives.
​
You can read about how we came to do the work we do on our history and our key funders pages. You can also read about the team that makes it all happen.
​
CACTC has expertise in three primary areas that contributes to our success: data & epidemiology, collaborative action, and health communications.
-
Data & epidemiology represents the core of CACTC’s decision making process that guides all projects and activities. This decision making process includes designing protocols that help answer targeted questions; collecting and analyzing data; and using a scientific approach in decision-making.
-
CACTC helps plan, create, and scale collaborative action initiatives by building multi-stakeholder partnerships. We serve as a network manager, providing backbone support to build capacity, assess readiness, align resources, coordinate activities, and assess outcomes.
-
CACTC uses local data and local relationships to design and implement effective, fact-based, locally-relevant health communications campaigns aimed at educating and changing cultures and behaviors to make our community safer. The design process at CACTC relies on continuous improvement, making small changes, testing, and deploying solutions.
​
Click here to learn more about our areas of expertise and how we apply them to specific projects.
