EXPERTISE
CACTC has three "core competencies," three areas of expertise that we use to help bolster our partners' capacity to support the community:
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Data and Epidemiology, which includes contracted data collection and analysis, improved data literacy and infrastructure, administration and analysis of the Cortland County Youth Survey, and project evaluation/assessment
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Administration and Collaborative Leadership, which includes building and facilitating coalitions, writing and managing grants with partners, and facilitating trainings
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Public Health Communication, which includes graphic design, marketing strategy, and evidence-based messaging
Administration and Collaborative Leadership
To advance the work of CACTC, we build cross-sector collaboration and nurture long-term, sustainable relationships between partners in communities throughout rural New York. We use our team's data and grant writing skills to bring new resources to communities that might not otherwise be able to access them.
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CACTC has chosen to frame the work we do with partners as “collaborative action” to emphasize the importance of multiple stakeholders doing work together to solve a problem or make a change. This can involve organizations, community groups, government agencies, and individuals coming together to share resources, expertise, and ideas, and to develop and implement strategies to address a particular issue or problem. We chose to frame our work with partners not simply as collaboration, but as collaboration that concretely does something. Through the process of collaborative action, partners actively work together to do, create, or change something beyond what any of them could do alone. Built into our process for supporting collaborative action are systems to assess needs, plan definite actions to meet specific and measurable goals, and evaluate the effectiveness of those actions.
This approach can also help to build stronger and more resilient communities, as it brings together diverse perspectives and perspectives and fosters a sense of collective responsibility and ownership.
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We focus on data-driven strategies to improve our community's capacity. Our Collaborative Action work includes:
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coordinating among partners
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convening important conversations
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bringing in outside experts to facilitate trainings
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helping partners apply for collaborative grants that we then provide data support for
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helping manage coalitions
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data-driven action planning and evaluation (read more about data and evaluation below)
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We have experience collecting and using local data to inform collaborative action planning. We have a strong network of relationships with regional partners--including direct service providers, community-based organizations, and State agencies--that allows us to map out the landscape and expand opportunities for engagement. We can help guide partners through this process of setting goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Our expertise with Data and Epidemiology means that we can then effectively assess how well we implemented strategies to reach our goals and then learn from that for next time.
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We are currently leading or involved with the following collaborative/coalition projects:
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Cortland County Literacy Coalition
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Onondaga Literacy Coalition
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SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework - Partnerships for Success to decrease youth alcohol use and increase prevention infrastructure
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Healing Cortland Project, aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths
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Access to Independence
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Cross-Community LGBTQIA+ Advocacy Alliance
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Reach out if you're interested in getting involved with any of our collaborative projects or want support with your own partnerships or collaborations:
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Data is essential for effective public health work. It helps us to identify trends, track progress, and target resources where they are needed most. But data is only useful if it is accurate, timely, and relevant. However, many agencies in the healthcare and public health worlds don't have the staff knowledge, experience, or time to effectively collect, analyze, use, and communicate data about their community or work.
CACTC has a Data and Epidemiology Team centered around two full-time epidemiologists who can help expand partners' capacity to work with data and research to make their work as effective as possible. Accurate, accessible, and timely local data is of utmost importance when it comes to planning and implementing effective public health and prevention interventions in a community.
The CACTC Data & Epidemiology Team utilizes local data to support and build efforts that drive population level outcomes in Cortland County. The data we collect and analyze is used by community coalitions and partners for strategic planning, strategy design, and evaluation of prevention, school based, and public health programs. CACTC’s data-driven approach identifies targeted populations and focus areas that help ensure we are providing programs and services to community members who need it most, all while saving valuable resources such as time and money.
Our Team is available to meet with community coalitions and agencies in the Central New York Region to discuss how to incorporate a data-driven process into agency program and intervention goals. We also offer consulting services for comprehensive needs assessments, data-driven strategic planning, evaluation planning, and data dashboard design. You can take advantage of CACTC's two decades of experience collecting and using data by using our Data and Epidemiology Portal. It serves as a hub for CACTC's data, epidemiology, and research work. In addition to learning about what kinds of collaboration are possible with CACTC (e.g. data collection, analysis, or evaluation), this site is a place for partners to find concrete resources like:
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data dashboards and overviews of local data projects--how have we collected and used data locally?
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strategy reports--how can we most effectively act on this local data?
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data consultation--best practices, tools, and coaching to best find/collect and use data to inform policy and other decisions
Recent Projects Include:
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Completing a compressive needs assessment and developing a data driven strategic plan for underage drinking prevention in Cortland County.
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Initiating the data collection and needs assessment process for the HEALing Cortland project aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths.
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Collaborating with SPEAK Up Cortland Suicide Prevention Coalition to collect local data related to suicide prevention, conduct a needs assessment, determine gaps in local data, and develop a data-driven strategic plan.
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Developing an interactive data dashboard for Cortland County Youth Survey data.
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If you need help with data or want to explore the local data we have access to, take a look at our Data and Epidemiology Portal:
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HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS
Health communications is the study and use of communication strategies to inform, influence, and motivate individuals and communities to make healthy choices. This may include educating people about health risks and benefits, promoting healthy behaviors, and providing information and support to help individuals make informed decisions about their health.
Health communications can take many forms, including public service announcements, social media campaigns, educational materials, and interactive websites. It may also involve the use of different communication channels, such as television, radio, print, and digital media.
Effective health communications can help to improve public health by increasing awareness and understanding of health issues, promoting healthy behaviors, and supporting individuals in making healthy choices. It can also help to reduce health disparities and promote health equity by providing information and support to underserved and marginalized communities. Overall, health communications is an important tool for promoting health and wellbeing at the individual and community level.
CACTC has data to support a wide variety of public health information campaigns and has already developed messaging and graphics for many campaigns and is happy to share these with partner agencies. On our Health Communications Portal, partners can browse existing campaign materials to see what they might be able to use for their own campaigns or what we might be able to customize for them into tailored campaigns.
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Check out our Health Communications Portal or reach out to us if you have ideas for custom campaigns or want to work with us to use existing campaigns:
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