Lancaster County Community Indicators is an initiative of The Steinman Foundation. This initiative of The Steinman Foundation is aimed at deepening our knowledge and understanding of our County. The data and analysis will serve as a common source of information on critical topics that affect the health and progress of Lancaster County and inform community stakeholders, spur discussion and collaboration, and monitor our quality of life.

Community indicators are measurements of social, environmental and economic factors that affect quality of life. In a community indicator project, these factors are gathered and analyzed over time to monitor the community’s well-being and whether it’s improving, declining, or staying the same. These metrics help us decide how to focus our resources to improve our community, and then to monitor the impact of our collective efforts.

Our overview report will be updated annually, and the online data will be updated more frequently to allow for continual monitoring of the community’s evolving needs.

Using this data, The Steinmann Foundation will help the community create a shared vision for Lancaster’s future and build a data-driven civic agenda to realize that vision. The Steinman Foundation will then facilitate partnerships and strategic initiatives that help align the community’s resources to support the agenda.

Lancaster County Community Indicators was developed with assistance from the Center for Governmental Research (CGR), based in Rochester, New York. CGR is a nonprofit research and consulting organization with a mission to support positive community change that has created community indicator projects for more than a dozen communities across the United States. CGR provides rigorous analysis, actionable insights and quality community engagement and collaboration for clients ranging from local governments to public safety organizations to collective impact initiatives and community-based nonprofits. To learn more, visit www.cgr.org.