Compass Background
What is Compass of Larimer County?
Compass is a website that displays a wide variety of data on important social issues in Larimer County. By providing this data, in categories such as crime & safety, physical health, affordable housing and many others, this website attempts to measure progress at a community-wide level.In addition to statistics, Compass posts reports and studies about our county, does comparative analyses of Larimer County to Colorado and the U.S., and provides links to many other valuable sources of local and national data. This site also has a sort capability that allows users to sort by three elements: age, geographic region, and areas of interest, which includes categories such as Achieving Personal & Family Self-Sufficiency and Promoting Quality of Life for Seniors. For example, if a user chose Loveland and children, they would get links to data on every topic that included both of those elements.
Information is constantly being added and updated, making Compass a continuous living report on the quality of life in Larimer County. Therefore, Compass is an invaluable tool for researchers, realtors, policy makers, grant writers, students, and others who need to know facts about our county.
How it Began
This database is the outgrowth of several local organizations' desire to improve the quality of life in Larimer County. Those involved believed that community improvements could happen more efficiently if everyone worked together from the same base of information. A steering committee was formed to create such a base. In their search for a way to achieve this goal, they found Compass.Compass in itself is a product of the United Way of America. In 1999, Larimer County was chosen as one of ten pilot communities in the nation to test United Way's Compass 2.0 product. Compass 2.0 is a community building process. The steering committee adapted United Way's Compass 2.0 process model to meet our community's specific needs. In order to determine those needs, Compass staff met with nearly 200 community leaders and experts from many different fields and communities within Larimer County. Their feedback provided the initial list of statistics used to create the site.
Compass leaders went to great efforts to make the data usable for the entire community. For over two years, project leaders have been collecting data from hundreds of sources, such as government agencies, private studies, community surveys, human service agencies, local census data, and special reports. Compass staff often needed to pull together raw data from several sources and organize just the elements that reflected one concept or measure. Graphs were created for easy presentation and comparisons across communities and over time.
When the initial site was launched for testing in April 2001 it contained information on nearly 80 different measurements and over 100 graphs. The 2nd release in October 2001 featured an improved user-friendly format and nearly twice as much information with 140 measures and over 200 graphs.
Who created Compass?
Arts Alive
City of Fort Collins
Colorado State University
Fort Collins Coloradoan
Fort Collins Area United Way*
Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce
Healthier Communities Coalition
Larimer County Health & Human Services Division
Community Foundation serving Northern Colorado
Poudre Health Services District
Bohemian Foundation
United Way of Loveland, Berthoud, Estes Park*
* In 2003, Fort Collins Area United Way and United Way of Loveland, Berthoud, Estes Park merged to become the United Way of Larimer County
Acknowledgements
Compass would like to thank all the persons who contributed to the creation of this web site including members of the steering and data committees as well as the hundreds of people who assisted in the selection and acquisition of the data.Steering Committee Members (In alphabetical order):
Linda Bobbitt, Project Coordinator: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Kay Collins: Healthier Communities Coalition
Kris Cord: Community Foundation
Richard Guest: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Nancy Hartley, Chair: CSU
Tess Heffernan: City of Fort Collins
Bob Hix: United Way of Loveland, Berthoud & Estes Park
Beth Juday: Stryker-Short Foundation
Ruthanne Kastner: City of Fort Collins
Rob Kneable: Arts Alive
Sharon Kulesa: Coloradoan
Samantha Messer: Fort Collins Area United Way - Vista Volunteer
Marcy McNeal: Healthier Communities Coalition & Team Fort Collins
Darcy Moreng: City of Loveland
Carl Peterson: McKee Foundation
Carol Plock: Poudre Health Services District
Joe Rowan: Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce
Kathy Snell: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Gordan Thibedeau, Project Director: Fort Collins Area United Way
Staff
Linda Bobbitt - Larimer County Health & Human Services
Samantha Messer - AmeriCorps Vista volunteer Corporation for National Service
Lisa Summers - Larimer County Health & Human Services
Steve Moore, Web Administrator - Larimer County Information Management Services
Leanne Hemphill - Fort Collins Area United Way
Data Committee
Dr. Cliff Barber: CSU
Linda Bobbitt - Larimer County Health & Human Services
Ramie Liddle: Contractor - Little by Liddle
Samantha Messer - AmeriCorps Vista volunteer
Sasha Pampalone: Poudre Health Services District
Lisa Summers - Larimer County Health & Human Services
Jennifer Wolgemurth: CSU
Prior Data Committee Members
Sue Hewitt: Poudre Health Services District
Jo Birkmeyer: Poudre Health Services District
Susan Lehman: City of Fort Collins
Cindy Quick: Contractor - CSU
Key Informant Process Committee
Vicki Buchanan: Contractor - CSU
Cindy Quick: Contractor - CSU
Robert Thompson: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Linda Bobbitt: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Samantha Messer, Lead Staff: AmeriCorps Vista volunteer w/ Fort Collins Area United Way
Tess Heffernan: City of Fort Collins
Kathy Snell: Larimer County Health & Human Services
Rob Kneable: Arts Alive
Regis University Nursing Students
Cindy Cloyd - Instructor
|
Fall 1999 |
Fall 2000 |
Spring 2001 |
|---|---|---|
| Amy Doran | Jenelle Bartels | Missy Barnett |
| Kristin Fox | Crystal Drake | Megan Casida |
| Kelli Gaffield | Karen Forest | Kate Dirr |
| Michelle Lach | Wendy Hoffman | Sarah Livesay |
| Wendy Maeder | Jackie Miller | Cindy Morgan |
| Carrie Mauck | Marissa Muller-Meier | Martha Reeves |
| Connie Wince | Jennier Suter | Tami Torres |
| Heidi Zink | Kelly Weaver |
Contributors and other helpful persons
Art Bavoso: Poudre Health Services District
Corporation for National Service (Vista volunteers): Gale Schladale
Larry Kendall: The Group
John Rivera: Formerly with United Way of Loveland, Berthoud & Estes Park
Curtis Johnson: United Way of America
All those who participated in the Key Informant Process
THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Progress to Date
Compass is a living report on the condition of our community. As first released, Compass is taking its first steps. Over time Compass will develop into a more complete report including more links, reports, analysis and information in general. To track our progress we are providing the table below. It lists milestones in our development marked by when they were undertaken and completed. By checking this page periodically you will understand where Compass has been and where it is growing.For more information regarding the process behind the milestones click on the links below or email us at compass@larimer.org.
| Milestone/ Task | Date Work Began | Date Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Selected as Pilot site by United Way of America Receive training on Compass process in Indiana | 2-99 | 3-99 |
| Form Compass Steering Committee and develop plan for Compass | 5-99 | 11-99 |
| Key Informant Process to determine what to measure | 11-99 | 6-00 |
| Develop data collection process, recruit help - form Data committee | 6-00 | 9-00 |
| Determine criteria for data collection | 9-00 | 10-00 |
| Construct initial website | 11-00 | 3-01 |
| Collect data & create pages for every measure listed under 'What we measured'. | 10-00 | Expected in 5-01 |
| Quality Assurance: Initial test of all links, look for errors etc. | 4-01 | 4-01 ongoing |
| Quality Assurance: Initial experts review of content | 7-01 | |
| GO LIVE: posted and announced to the public This marks the completion of the 1st Version. | 4-20-01 | 10-01 2nd Release (new look) |
| 2nd Phase begins | ||
| Create Summary Reports by service category | 7-01 | 8-01 |
| Build out undeveloped sections including: | 5-01 | |
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8-01 | 2-02 |
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10-01 | |
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8-01 | 9-01 |
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9-27-01 | 1-02 |
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3-02 | |
| Add measures to underdeveloped sections in all Indices | 8-01 | |
| Update existing measures as new data becomes available | 2-02 | |
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Determine and add new features * Index of Community Well-Being |
11-01 | |