State of the Region Progress Report 2000 for the Buffalo-Niagara Region:

Committed to its mission of measuring regional performance and progress toward indicator goals, the first State of the Region progress report was released in November 2000. State of the Region: Progress Report 2000 for the Buffalo-Niagara Region includes 44 updated, revised and new indicators, as well as a qualitative analysis of the region’s efforts to improve performance in key areas. The overall report consists of two parts:

Indicator Updates:

The report includes 36 updated, 4 revised and 4 new indicators, plus data sources and notes.

Booklet:

This 51-page narrative summarizes regional efforts and activities toward improving regional performance, as well as an analysis of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for the region. For each of the project's 11 topic areas there are three narrative sections that outline progress for that particular area:

• Regional Approaches: This section describes how the region has structured its approach to improving performance in a certain area. Factors considered include the extent of cross-sector coordination and communication, the degree to which binational attention is given to common issues, and the level of interest in building broader networks to provide valued community services.


• Selected Activities: This section provides an overview of the myriad of worthy activities and notable initiatives occurring in the region for a given topic area. Information for this section comes from State of the Region follow-up meetings, consultations with original task force chairs and members, telephone interviews, news clippings and other sources.


• The Road Ahead: In this section, the report synthesizes Regional Approaches and Selected Activities for the region in an attempt to identify both future challenges as well as issues that warrant greater regional attention.


• For More Information: This section highlights resources, including Web sites and publications, with more information on regional activities and more in-depth research on each topic area.