Cattaraugus County is a large (1309 sq. mi.), primarily rural county situated in Southwestern New York, along the Pennsylvania border. There are two cities, Olean and Salamanca, with populations of approximately 13,670 and 5,497 respectively (2019 estimates), in addition to 9 villages and 32 towns located in Cattaraugus County, per the most recent ACS data 2020).
Cattaraugus Community Action, Inc. (CCA) is a private, not-for-profit organization formed in 1965 in response to the War on Poverty. CCA is headquartered on the Seneca Nation of Indian’s Territory in Salamanca, NY where CCA works closely with the Seneca Nation. Cattaraugus Community Action (CCA) partners with the community to provide strengths-based opportunities for vulnerable people to achieve economic, physical, and emotional security. CCA provides services and opportunities for low-income and disenfranchised people in eight basic categories. These are energy conservation, emergency and homeless services, housing, nutrition, victim services, youth programs, parent support and mental health. The agency has an annual budget of approximately $10 million. The agency has a clearly demonstrated history of successfully managing a variety of funds from multiple federal, state, local and private sources.
Cattaraugus County Health Department is headquartered in Olean, NY (Cattaraugus County) and maintains a close partnership with Cattaraugus Community Action. The Cattaraugus County Health Department’s mission is to engage and empower the public of all ages to live healthier lifestyles through efforts of education, prevention, monitoring, accessibility, affordability, technology, testing, diagnosing, and treating.
The selection of priority areas for this proposal, involved CCA looking at the results of our own internal needs assessment as well as the Cattaraugus County Department of Health’s Community Health Assessment (CHA). One of the main areas of concern for Cattaraugus County residents that were surveyed included the lack of nutritious foods as well as the increase in chronic disease with emphasis being placed on linkages/outreach. Therefore, SDOH Priority areas selected for this proposal include: 1) Food and Nutrition Security 2) Community Clinical Linkages. CCA and the Cattaraugus County Health Department (CCHD) obtain the critical county wide data through the Community Health Assessment and surveys, while CCA obtains and collects similar information via surveys and a triennial needs assessment. An established Leadership Team has been developed as well as resources to implement an SDOH accelerator plan that focuses on 1) Food and Nutrition Security and 2) Community Clinical Linkages as the two main determinants of health priority areas. While the two priority areas are the priority areas, CCA and CCHD will consider all 5 social determinants of health in the development of planning and outreach.
