Project Healthy Owensboro: Progress and Evaluation (H.O.P.E.) was developed by Chad Gesser at the Owensboro Community and Technical College (OCTC). The intent of the Project is to provide a venue via the world wide web to house area health data, to provide additional information related to health, and to provide information regarding affective practices and policies related to health.

Mr. Gesser is Instructor of Sociology at the Owensboro Community and Technical College. He has conducted program evaluations, coordinated strategic planning functions on a local, regional, and statewide levels, and has taught sociology in various capacities for the past ten years.

Project H.O.P.E. was developed as an effort to maintain a regular focus on the data and indicators associated with local health issues. In order to better understand our progress and our failures, it is pertinent to establish a baseline measure for analysis of health data and to provide regular reporting related to those health trends over time. As most people working in fields related health can attest, community benchmarking of health data is either nonexistent or minimal at best. The task to assess the overall health in Owensboro-Daviess County area is to:

• track the prevalence of certain behaviors that lead to illness and disease;


• track behavioral trends to determine if they are being impacted;


• track trends in disease to determine if focus on risk factors and preventative measures is reducing disease rate;


• track our area alongside others to determine our relative health status; and


• analyze non-traditional indicators affecting health status such as data on the economy, education, and employment opportunities.

Development and Support for Project H.O.P.E
The development and organization of Project H.O.P.E. is led by Chad Gesser from the Owensboro Community and Technical College, with data support from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Division of Epidemiology and Health Planning Data Branch. A special thanks goes to Sara Robeson, Rona Stapleton, and Melinda Martin at the state department for the support and assistance with this project. As mentioned above, the primary intent of Project H.O.P.E. is to provide an organized venue to focus our community’s attention on the health situation of the area. Building on that vision, a website has been created that will host the work of Project H.O.P.E.. This website will be hosted in cooperation with the Owensboro Community and Technical College Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Research. It can be found at www.octc.kctcs.edu/cgesser/HOPE. For more information contact Chad Gesser at 270-686-4435, or by email at chad.gesser@kctcs.edu.

Thanks for stopping in!

Chad M. Gesser