Utilizing the Healthy NEO Website: Seven Helpful Features for Grant Writers

Thu, Oct 5, 2023 - Comments (0) - Posted by The Center for Health Affairs

Creating a winning grant proposal can be challenging, but the capabilities of the Healthy Northeast Ohio website can make the experience easier by providing you with the tools and data you need for a persuasive proposal.

Healthy NEO is a website designed to improve and support community health across a 9-county region by providing stakeholders with access to vetted population health data and resources through a publicly available platform. Launched in 2019, this innovative platform brings non-biased data and local resources to a single location for partners in the Northeast Ohio region.

Although you can find plenty of useful tools on healthyneo.org, we’ve gathered seven of the most helpful features available to you.

The Indicator List by Location
Every grant writer knows the importance of building a case for a project by backing it up with relevant data. The indicator list by location allows you to easily view the more than 300 health and quality of life indicators that are available and organized by topics that align with the Healthy People 2030 national objectives. Updated regularly with data from more than 30 trusted sources, these indicators can be found in one place, which means you can save time while helping you tell a compelling story.
The Search for Data Page
Looking for an easy way to access relevant data? On the data page, you can search terms and receive quick results, which can include surprisingly specific details. An example: Searching for “lead” will provide you with a list of results that can be broken down even further. With “lead,” you can specify blood levels in children that appear at various levels per deciliter and filter even further by selecting a location by state, county, subcounty regions, census tracts, and neighborhoods.

Depending on the data source, comparisons can be made to the Ohio or U.S. value, prior value, and trends over time, among others. This could be a very valuable tool if you need to compare how your area of interest is doing compared to others. In some cases, breakouts for more info, such as race and ethnicity, can provide more details.

The page also displays a “why is this important?” note which summarizes the importance of the search term and data currently being viewed.
Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) Curated Dashboard
Located on the Search for Data Page, you can view indicators related to healthcare access, education, income, housing, transportation and public safety. Simply select a location, click on an indicator to navigate to the indicator detail page, and receive more info. The page also includes easy access for you to view a collection of SDoH related resources, the Health Equity Index, and the Food Insecurity Index.
Specialty Dashboard for Healthy People 2030 Progress Tracker
Healthy People 2030 is a comprehensive set of key disease prevention and health promotion objectives, which allow communities to assess their health status and build an agenda for community health improvement. If you need to make comparisons within your community, the Progress Tracker can be used to identify needs in priority populations and be effective for setting goals and checking progress. Available for various geographic levels, it will indicate the most current value and compare it to the target goal for 2023.
Demographics Dashboard
A vital tool when looking to easily add data and graphics to your proposal, the dashboard includes approximately 250 demographic elements updated annually. Primarily based on U.S. Census and American Community Survey data, single-year data is available at the state, region, county and zip code levels. View demographic variables such as population, race, age, sex, etc. If you want more specific data on areas, it is easily accessible and you can even generate maps that can be altered to change their appearance to better suit your proposal.
Build a Custom Dashboard
A unique feature of the Healthy NEO site is the ability for site users to create their own custom dashboard. This will allow you to generate data in an easy-to-view format tailored to your specific grant proposal. As with the other dashboards, you can focus on specific data, such as “health/alcohol & drug use” and compare specific areas to the Ohio census data, U.S. census, Cuyahoga County, and more.

These dashboards can be easily shared with coworkers and community partners and be included in proposals. Clicking on “save a link” allows you to save your custom search results. These links are dynamic and will still be functional even six months later. Data included in these dashboards will update automatically if new data is available.
SocioNeeds Index® Suite
This index suite provides analytics around social determinants of health to advance equitable outcomes. Each index summarizes multiple health and socioeconomic indicators into one validated composite score to help identify areas for action. The index suite can help you justify and validate investments for prevention and early intervention, clearly communicate areas for shared action — by healthcare, public health, social services, community organizations, business, and others — and inform policies and interventions at the regional level.