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DATA IN ACTION
http://www.childhealthdata.org/

Upcoming MCH Epidemiology Training
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The MCHB and CDC are offering a Training Course in MCH Epidemiology as part of their ongoing effort to enhance the analytic capacity of state and local health agencies. The training this year will be held in Chicago from June 2-7.

This national program is aimed primarily at professionals in state and local health departments who have significant responsibility for collecting, processing, analyzing, and reporting maternal and child health data. Faculty working with state MCH departments are also eligible for the course.

The training curriculum is designed to build conceptual, technical, and analytic skills for using data effectively, and focuses on applications that are relevant to the day-to-day work of participants. The curriculum is designed for trainees with moderately advanced epidemiology and statistical training and applied experience. The training combines an intensive five-day program emphasizing hands-on data analysis experience, with additional access to core faculty for short-term consultation until September 30, 2008. MCHB will pay for the hotel and per diem costs of trainees. A limited number of scholarships for airfare are available.

The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health Web site features an easy-to-use interactive data query that allows users to search, view and compare National Survey of Children's Health and National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs results at state, regional and national levels, stratified by selected demographic characteristics including age, race, household income, insurance type, special health care needs status and more.

I hope that you will join the Metropolitan Policy Program’s Urban Markets Initiative (UMI) as we host a demonstration of a new interactive mapping website for the Housing & Transportation Affordability Index, developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in collaboration with UMI. A panel discussion on transportation and affordable housing will follow.

The event will take place April 9, 2008, 9:00 – 10:30am., at the Brookings Institution (1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW) in Washington, D.C.With the availability of affordable housing a formidable obstacle for many Americans, it is imperative that homeowners understand the full cost implications of location in the purchase of a home – that buying in outlying suburbs without access to public transportation, requiring a long commute by car, may not necessarily afford them the cost savings they envisioned.

The traditional measure of housing affordability used by planners and lenders states that a household should spend no more than 30 percent of its income on housing. In contrast, the new Housing and Transportation Affordability Index takes into account not just the cost of housing, but housing and the transportation costs associated with its location. The Center for Neighborhood Technology’s research shows that the cost of transportation can vary from 14% of a the average household’s budget in compact transit-rich communities, to 28% or more in less dense areas far from employment and other amenities. Working families have a greater burden – for some transportation costs may approach 50% of their household income.

Better information on the combined costs of housing and transportation by location must be made available, as more knowledge about transportation costs will lead to greater understanding that the cost of living is much higher than it needs to be.The index models neighborhood-level data for 52 different metropolitan areas across the United States and presents it in an interactive, online mapping application which can be used by individuals, urban planners, and transportation and housing advocates to support improved decision-making and analysis.

The event will include a demonstration of the new website by Dr. Peter Haas, PhD of CNT followed by a panel discussion moderated by me, and featuring Scott Bernstein, President of Center for Neighborhood Technology, Conrad Egan, President & CEO of the National Housing Conference, and Mariia Zimmerman, Vice President for Policy of Reconnecting America, followed by ample time for audience questions.