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Chicago and Illinois Health Information:

Chicago Department of Health statistics on Infant Mortality/ low birth weight rates and causes of death (by community area; also includes basic demographic data for 1990 and 2000).

1. Go to http://www.ci.chi.il.us. Click on City Departments at top of screen. Scroll down and click on Health.
2. Under “Data and Publications” (to the left of the screen) click on “Community and Hospital Health Profiles.”
3. Click on "Community and Hospital Health Profiles" again. Then click on "Community Health Profiles" one last time. Select your community area.
4. Go back to the City of Chicago Department of Health.
5. Under “Data and Publications" (to the left of the screen) click on “Community Area Health Inventories.”  Vol. 1 has individual community health profiles and Vol. 2 includes rankings of the communities. 

Note: These documents can take a long time to load. Also, make sure you print only the pages you need!

State of Illinois data (IPLAN data system): Contains more than 100 health-related indicators at the state, county and community levels. 

1. Click on http://app.idph.state.il.us Click on IPLAN Data System in the menu at left of screen, and then "county-level report."
2. Click on "Community Summary Report" for a list of all the health indicators in your town or village; years 1990 -1999 are available.
3. Select your county and town.
4. Choose "Community Level Report" if you want to create a customized report with certain health indicators and compare towns or years. 

Note: Be sure to read the Indicator Descriptions – click on "IPLAN DATA SYSTEM" on the left menu on the home page of IPLAN and then on Indicator Details on the home page for IPLAN Data System. These descriptions will help you understand exactly what is being measured and how, as well as which years the data was measured. (You'll also see a really brief description of the Healthy People 2010 standards here to give you some standard of comparison.)

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Using Census Data:

For population data (age, race, ethnicity), income, education, housing, you’ll use U.S. Census reports (taken every 10 years).

1990 results can be found in the Local Community Fact Book (Ref. F548.1 .L6), or here.

1. The 2000 Census results are available at:  http://www.nipc.org
2. Click on Quicklinks and Census 2000 Updates
3. Scroll down to Census 2000: Social, Economic, & Housing Data in One File for All 77 Community Areasin the City of Chicago  (August 20, 2002)
4. Right click on either the unzipped or zipped file and then Open. 
5. You’ll see a list of all 77 community areas.  To switch from table to another (social, economic, housing, general) click on the small arrows at the bottom left of the page.
6. To see all the data for each table, click on the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom right of the page.

Or for a shorter summary of general demographs (age, race, etc.), click on:  http://www.nipc.org/test/dp234_CA_2000.htm. Click on “Download the File”

Note: The 2000 census results will not look identical to the 1990 reports, because some questions were phrased differently.  Pay attention to the description of the data you are using.

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Other Sources: (internet, books, observation, libraries, newspapers)

1. Encyclopedia of Chicago (Ref. F548.3 .E53  2004)   You could find some more recent historical information for some communities here. For the online version of this: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org
2. Healthy People 2010 (Ref. RA395 .A3 H44)  2 volumes
• This publication gives national goals and status of leading health indicators – provides context in which you can understand certain health problems of your own community, for example AIDS or heart disease.
• Also available online at http://www.health.gov/healthypeople) Click on “Publications” and then on Healthy People 2010 volume 1 and volume 2.  For updated information click on Latest Updates: Progress Reviews on the home page.
3. Yahoo.com Yellow pages (http://yp.yahoo.com/) -Click on Change Location and search near an address. Enter an address within your community, and you can look at religion, schools, hospitals, grocery stores, whatever.
4. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov   Click on “Where you live” and then Search your community by zipcode.  Look at Envirofacts and Enviromapper.
5. Environmental Defense League: http://www.scorecard.org   Search by a specific pollutant or environmental hazard (e.g., lead) to see how your community ranks.
6. Illinois Manufacturer’s Directory (Ref. T 12 .W5) – you can search by zip code to see what industries are located in your community area.
7. Community Resource Network (Chicago area): http://www.communityresourcenetwork.org Click on "If you are a Directory Subscriber" -- Call Reference Desk for password.(Use advanced search to search by type of organization, zip code, etc.)
8. United Way. Human Care Services Directory of Metropolitan Chicago (Ref. HV 99 .C4 C532)
9. City of Chicago home page:  http://www.ci.chi.il.us   
• Click on City Departments on top menu bar of this page to get to Health, Libraries, Police, etc.  Start with:
• Geographic Information Systems (great interactive map that lets you see where schools, parks, public transportation, etc. are in your community, as well as your police district), and much more. Click on Chicago Interactive Map and then “Find Address/Map Feature” at the bottom of it.  You can enter a street address or intersection.
• Police – Links to CLEAR Map (maps actual crimes that have been reported within a two week period) and the Registered Sex Offenders Database (sex offenders living in your community). You can also check Beat Events and CAPS (community area policing) for local news.
10. Local branch libraries are good sources of community information. There’s a map of the branch library system in Chicago at the Chicago home page under Departments – Libraries: http://www.chipublib.org/001libraries/001libraries.html

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