WORCESTER – The 2024 Greater Worcester Community Health Assessment was released earlier this month, which included findings gathered over 32 discussions with 72 participants over three months conducted by the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester (CHGW). Of those 72 participants, 54 (75%) were were part of the Health Equity Population (HEP) Focus Groups, and 18 (25%) were part of the Institutional Leader (IL) conversations.
The Central Massachusetts Regional Public Health Alliance (CMRPHA) covers Worcester, Grafton, Shrewsbury, and West Boylston. The collective population is over 272,000.
The majority of the participants in the two groups combined were 75 percent who identify with the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities. The group was also a majority (62%) female, while 47 percent grew up in the city of Worcester.
A new question added for participants this year One question centered around a sense of safety in the presence of police. The difference in responses between the HEP and IL groups was drastic.
Seventy percent (70%) of HEP interviewees explicitly expressed a decreased sense of safety in police presence whereas 81% of IL interviewees responded neutrally to the question or declined to answer the question, with 6% expressing a decreased sense of safety.
The report also has a wealth of other data about numerous other subject effecting the city, including population demographics health outcomes, income, poverty, public assistance, housing and
more.
The full report is available for download from the City of Worcester website.
