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Health Resource Capacity Assessment for Danielson, Connecticut, June 2003Danielson Description: DemographicsDanielson is a small, rural borough of 4,265 residents within the town of Killingly, in rural northeastern Connecticut. Danielson is on the western edge of Killingly, bordering Brooklyn, more specifically East Brooklyn. While Danielson covers less than 10% of the area of Killingly, about 25% of Killingly residents live in Danielson. Most Danielson residents are white (92%) and English is the predominant language (90%) as is true for both the rest of Killingly and East Brooklyn but unlike the rest of Connecticut (83% and 82% respectively). Almost one in four Danielson residents is under the age of 19 (23%), slightly higher than surrounding towns and the state overall.1 Considerably more Danielson residents live in poverty than Killingly overall or statewide. Per capita incomes for Danielson and East Brooklyn residents are well below those for Killingly and for Connecticut. In the 2000 US Census, Danielson's unemployment rate was significantly higher than Killingly's or Connecticut's.2 In January 2003, Killingly's unemployment rate of 7.9% was considerably higher than Connecticut's at 5.3%.3 Killingly has consistently been listed as a labor surplus area by the Connecticut Department of Labor. 4 In the 2000 Census, Windham County (which includes Danielson) had Connecticut's highest rate of residents living in emergency and transitional shelters.5
The top five employers in Killingly are Frito-Lay, Inc., Staples, Inc., Brooks Distribution, Cornucopia Natural Foods and the Killingly Public School System.8 Danielson workers are employed primarily in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (27%), service occupations (26%), sales and office occupations (21%) and management, professional and related occupations (17%). This profile is not significantly different than for all Killingly residents.9 Both Danielson and East Brooklyn residents ages 21 to 64 years are more likely to suffer from a disability than averages for Killingly total or statewide (25% Danielson, 26% East Brooklyn vs. 22% Killingly, 17% Connecticut)10. Being a rural community, transportation is important to accessing healthcare. Twelve percent of Danielson residents and 24% of East Brooklyn residents do not have a vehicle available in their household. Only 8.1% of Killingly residents are without access to a vehicle.11 Crime rates in Killingly are low at 22 per 1,000 residents compared to the statewide average of 33.12 Danielson and Killingly residents over age 25 are far less likely to have a bachelor's degree than the rest of Connecticut (12% and 13% vs. 31%) and East Brooklyn residents are even less likely to have a bachelor's degree (4%).13 There are significant differences between social and academic indicators for children from Killingly's two elementary K through 4th grade schools. Killingly Memorial School is located in Danielson and the vast majority of students live in Danielson. Killingly Central School serves children from other boroughs of the town.14 Not surprisingly given poverty levels, almost half of Memorial School students (Danielson) are eligible for free or reduced price lunch (46%) compared to one in three at Central School (35%) or one in four statewide (26%)15. Danielson elementary school students excel academically. Fourth grade students at Memorial School (Danielson) in 2001-02 were more likely to have met the state goals for all three Connecticut Mastery Test areas (46%) than children from Central School (36%) or all Connecticut 4th graders (43%). Memorial School students were also far more likely than their Central School counterparts to pass all 4 state Physical Fitness Tests (68% vs. 34%; the statewide average was even lower at 32%). Student attendance at both schools was very high (both 94%) as was the state average (96%).16 However in later grades, Killingly students had fallen behind their statewide counterparts in reaching mastery test goals (6th grade-36% Killingly vs. 45% Connecticut, 8th grade - 38% Killingly vs. 44% Connecticut, 10th grade - 11% Killingly vs. 24% Connecticut). The cumulative 4-year drop out rate for Killingly High School's Class of 2001 was more than twice the rate for other Connecticut high school students (29% vs. 11% Connecticut). Graduates of the Killingly Class of 2001 were also less likely to be pursuing higher education (63% vs. 79% Connecticut) and more likely to be unemployed (2.0% vs. 0.7% Connecticut).17 Next: Danielson Description: Healthcare Infrastructure/Resources Footnotes
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