Community indicators are "measurements that provide information about past and current trends and assist planners and community leaders in making decisions that affect future outcomes". They provide insight into the overall direction of a community: whether it is improving, declining, or staying the same, or is some mix of all three. In essence, indicators are measurements that reflect the interplay between social, environmental, and economic factors affecting a region’s or community’s

well-being Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative ''to'' someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good ''for'' this person, what is in th ...

. Community indicators projects typically are conducted by

nonprofit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

within a community, although in some cases they are initiated by the public sector.

History of community indicators

Community indicators are a localized response to the perceived invalidity of the traditional predominantly economic indicators, such as GDP, that are used for measuring human progress. This invalidity takes two forms. First, economic indicators account for all money transactions as beneficial for quality of life, whereas some of these can be seen as decidedly negative (e.g., money spent on environmental cleanup of pollution that could have been prevented). Secondly, strictly economic indicators do not count the value of non-monetary activity, such as homemaker and volunteer work and non-cash public assistance, which are decidedly positive for the quality of life of many families (Journal article by David Swain, Danielle Hollar; International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 26, 2003). A communities level approach to this apparent invalidity is based on the evidence of a social group whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common culture and history. Community indicators are not a new concept; they have been in use since 1910, when the Russell Sage Foundation initiated the development of local surveys for measuring industrial, educational, recreational, and other factors. The processes used by the Sage Foundation are similar to those that reemerged during the 1990s. But the difference today is the use of indicators to consider the full spectrum of a community’s well-being, not just isolated factors. Nowadays, indicators are used by many constituencies within a

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, ...

. After a decade of renewed attention to community indicators, they now represent a valuable mechanism to improve monitoring and evaluation in planning. Russell Sage Foundation employed “over two thousand local surveys taken on education, recreation,

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

, crime, and general social conditions” to assess social conditions. The first survey was conducted in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. (In the late 1990s, Pittsburgh again embraced indicators, with its Sustainable Pittsburgh Goals and Indicators Project.) Many of the surveys used by the Sage Foundation were conducted by nonprofit organizations, such as

chambers of commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

and citizen committees. These surveys yielded social trends indicators and were popular until

the Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and World War II, when economic measures such as the

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...

gross national product The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign ...

indicators took greater precedence

Community information systems objectives

Community information systems (CIS) bring together a wide range of community indicators —

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

and

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

data and information around objectives: * Monitoring the health, social well-being and sustainability of communities through the management of Quality of Life indicators; * Bringing together government performance indicators and community targeted indicators into a single solution; * Widening the use of data by citizens and public officials to support decision-making, improve policy and target resources; * Providing a wider local intelligence context to

key performance indicators A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it eng ...

for government officials; * Communicating outcome measures to citizens, stimulating public debate and building confidence in progress towards societal goals.

External links

Vital Signs - Community Foundations of Canada

Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network

Community Indicators Consortium

Community Indicators Initiative Of Spokane

CIV; Community Indicators Victoria

Community Indicator Blog
by

Ben Warner Ben Warner is a British data scientist. Education Warner earned a PhD at University College London for research investigating single molecule spintronics. The research was supervised by Cyrus Hirjibehedin and was awarded the Marshall Stoneham ...

Community Information Systems & InstantAtlas

DataHaven, New Haven Community Indicators Website

South Australia's Strategic Plan

Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project Website

Jacksonville Community Council Inc, Jacksonville, FL

Pinellas Community Indicators - Pinellas County, Florida, USA
Information Community building

History of community indicators

Community information systems objectives

See also

Further reading

External links