Community Indicators for Culture and the Arts

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Community Indicators for Culture and the Arts

• Prof Mike SalvarisCultural Development Network
  Forum8 May 2006

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The Victorian Community Indicators project

• a 2 year project funded by VicHealth
• working with local governments across Victoria
• to develop better measures and plans for
  well-being in their local communities
• and better ways to engage their local citizens in
  the process

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Summary of presentation

• Project partners and management
• Key goals, tasks and outcomes
• Background what led to this project?
• Community indicators what they are?
• Developing a whole community wellbeing
  framework, and how to use it
• Engaging citizens why and how
• Results so far
• Project milestones
• Visit our website www.communityindicators.net.au
  

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Project Partners

• VicHealth (funder)
• Victorian Local Governance Association
• Municipal Association of Victoria
• Victoria University
• Swinburne University Lilydale
• Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Partner Councils (10)

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Partner Councils

• Bendigo
• Hobsons Bay
• Knox
• Maroondah
• Moreland
• Port Philip
• Surf Coast
• Wellington
• Wodonga
• Yarra Ranges

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Project Reference Committee

• Partners
• Premiers Department
• Department of Victorian Communities
• Department of Human Services
• Department of Infrastructure
• Department of Sustainability Environment
• Victorian Council of Social Service

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Key goals of VCI Project

• Better ways to measure, understand and set goals
  for local progress and wellbeing
• Better local statistics statistical capacity,
  better documenting of need
• Whole of community planning reflecting
  community vision
• Stronger citizen engagement and local democracy
• Strengthened communities
• Best practice model for Loc. Gov. (Democratic
  Reform) Act
• Better Statewide planning, local Community Plans
  as building blocks
• Build changes permanently sustainably into
  government

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Key project tasks and outcomes

• Statewide local wellbeing measurement framework
• Best practice local statistics
• Guidelines and new models for community
  engagement and local democracy
• Model local Community Survey (replacing Community
  Satisfaction Survey)
• 10 Best Practice models for Community Planning
• Agreed links between state and local planning
• Ongoing training and materials
• Outstanding website

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Background and context

• Search for wellbeing measures beyond GDP
• Worldwide community indicators movement
• Need to strengthen democracy and community
  engagement
• VicHealth local work on health wellbeing
• Changing role of Local Govt in Victoria
• Community strengthening policy growing
• Strategic state development policies
• Joined up government and planning
• Victorian models need to spread learning

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Key ideas 1Making the future, not letting it
happen The future does not just happen to us
we ourselves create it by what we do and what we
fail to do. It is we who are making tomorrow what
tomorrow will be. For that reason, futurists
think not so much in terms of predicting the
future as in terms of trying to decide wisely
what we want the future to be. Edward
Cornish, US futurist
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• Key ideas 2
• Economic, social and environmental well-being are
  interdependent
• We have failed to see how our economy, our
  environment and our society are all one and that
  delivering the best quality of life for us all
  means more than concentrating on economic growth
  
• Achieving a better quality of life, now and for
  future generations to come means meeting four
  simultaneous objectives
• Effective protection of the environment
• Prudent use of natural resources
• Social progress that meets the needs of everyone
• Maintenance of high and stable levels of economic
  growth and employment
• Tony Blair, A Better Quality of Life

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Key ideas 3 Measuring what matters
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Indicator Case Studies overseas

• United Nations Indicator Framework
• OECD PSR model and reporting framework
• UK A Better Quality of Life A Strategy for
  Sustainable development in the UK
• Jacksonville Indicators
• Sustainable Seattle
• Canterbury Quality of Life Indicators Program, NZ
• Christchurch City Council, NZ
• and .

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Indicator case studies local

• Measuring Australias Progress (ABS)
• Tasmania Together
• Genuine Progress Indicator (Aust Institute)
• Newcastle (NSW)
• Cities of Onkaparinga, Marion (SA)
• Victoria Outer Eastern Melbourne, Surf Coast,
  Wodonga, Port Philip, Moreland, Wyndham etc

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Related Victorian initiatives

• New Local Government Act
• Four Year Council Plans and Resource Plans
• Rationalisation of the number of plans
• Role of Local Government in Community
  Strengthening
• Growing Victoria Together, Fairer Victoria
• Changing the Way Government Works
• State Co-ordinating and Management Committee

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Indicators

• statistics that measure some important issue or
  policy goal
• monitored over time to determine a trend towards
  or away from a goal
• inform the community
• contribute to public debate

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Community Well-being Indicators

• measure overall wellbeing of community
• in all areas of importance to the community
• not a measure of council performance,
• but important to councils to understand and
  change where they can
• not an end in themselves, but
• a means to inform and focus whole community
  action and planning

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Developing a Local Wellbeing Framework

• Project will develop a common framework from
  existing local frameworks (including Leading the
  Way) and surveys etc
• This will provide standard, good quality data for
  councils and communities
• Starting point is agreement on most important
  fields (pillars) and key outcomes
• Indicators then developed from these (not vice
  versa)

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Key pillars of wellbeing framework

• Include indicators of wellbeing in 6 key fields
  (pillars)
• Economic
• Social
• Cultural
• Built environment
• Natural environment
• Governance and community engagement

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Examples of outcome areas

• Economic
• Local economic output
• Income levels
• Local employment
• Social
• Health
• Sense of community
• Perceptions of safety
• Cultural
• Ethnic diversity
• Whole of life learning
• Cultural participation

• Built environment
• Roads, footpaths
• Transport
• Community facilities
• Natural environment
• Waste production
• Air and water quality
• Amount of open space
• Governance
• Voting levels
• Women councillors
• Citizen participation

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Selecting the best indicators

• Reflect important community issue or goal
• Link to strategic Community Plan
• Reliable data source, available as time series
• Meaningful and sensitive to change
• Summary in nature
• Assist targets, provide benchmarks
• Show trends over time

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Multiple uses of wellbeing framework
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Wellbeing measures and democracy

• What makes a healthy democracy?
• Trust
• The value of local democracy
• How citizens can participate
• Issues for local government

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Trust in democracy
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Community Engagement key issuesfor local
government

• Understanding the community better
• Auditing feedback from current CE processes
• Improving Council skills and capacity in CE
• Setting clear goals success measures for CE
• Making CE meaningful and fun
• Special processes for excluded citizens
• Best use of existing networks and resources
• CE must be properly resourced

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How LGs use indicators now

• Scan of 77 Council plans and community well-being
  indicators from 6 Councils
• 43 Council Plans use sustainability or TBL
• 19 plans refer to a Community Vision
• Community Satisfaction Survey used for indicators
  by 51 councils
• Indicators sometimes difficult to identify
• Some linked to Community Plans some not
• Not always available on Council websites
• 181 separate indicators used by one or more of
  the six Councils

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Some key practical issues

• How to ensure that all councils have the right
  information and the systems for analysing and
  using it effectively.
• How to enable data sharing between and across the
  state government and local government sectors.
• How to make information about local strategies,
  targets and performance more accessible and
  meaningful to local people.
• How community views can be reflected in the
  indicators.

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Key practical issues (contd)

• The extent to which state government may wish to
  prescribe indicators and measures.
• How to handle proposals for new measures and
  indicators and avoid duplication.
• How to help improve the accessibility of existing
  information.
• How to build on existing information systems and
  extend them.
• How to ensure robust means of assuring data
  quality.

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Progress and milestones

• Jan - July 2005
• Stock take of existing Victorian local government
  and community indicators
• Overview of current Local, State, Commonwealth
  Initiatives
• Set up website
• Statewide forums
• Partner Council program and workshop
• September 2005
• Draft framework
• Data set gaps identified
• December 2005
• Agreed framework
• June 2006
• Agreed plan for ongoing development and use of
  community well-being indicators

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Project website

• www.communityindicators.net.au
• Regular progress reports
• Best practice models
• Partner Council information
• Links to other good sites