What is a Community Well-Being Report?
Community Well-Being Reports measure various aspects of community life by providing concrete information on a carefully chosen set of indicators. Community life is rich and complex and hard to grasp in its entirety. It would not be feasible to measure everything about community life as a way of understanding it. Luckily, we can get a fairly accurate understanding of the quality of our lives by measuring a selection of things we believe will give us the best overall impression of it.
Taking the Pulse
By analyzing the indicators we choose and the data attached to those indicators, we can begin to see more clearly where different facets of community life are interrelated and impact each other. This is very useful information, especially when decision makers are trying to figure out where our priorities are for spending tax dollars, and where we can make significant impacts towards sustaining community vitality.
Annual Check Up
Community Well-Being Reports become even more powerful when they are updated every one to two years. Over time, we can monitor shifts in the data we have collected. If we have chosen the right indicators, these shifts give us clues about the changes we can anticipate seeing in the future if we stay on our present course. It gives us a great “heads up” about what needs to be addressed in order to avoid major challenges to quality of life in the future. It speaks to that old adage: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
What is our plan of action?
Our plan for completing a Community Well-Being Report is based on best practices taken from other communities who have successfully undertaken this endeavour. Using a sustainable communities model, we determine and measure indicators within 3 spheres of focus:
- Economic Prosperity
- Community Health
- Environmental Integrity
This will mean bringing people across sectors together to share their perspectives about what is important to measure within these 3 focuses.
