Measuring What Matters

1
Measuring What Matters

• Community Indicators and
• Quality of Life

2
Historical Background

• 1990s - Sault Ste. Marie a one horse town
• Downturn in price of steel results in loss of
  nearly 10,000 jobs
• Community rallies grassroots discussions
• BEC Becoming an Extraordinary Community
• 8 Solution Councils
• One monitoring group - CQI

3
From Then to Now

• Volunteer Solution Councils dissolve
• Monitoring quality of life improvements still
  important
• Corporate sector, Municipal Government, EDC
  provide support
• MOU with EDC for ongoing operations of CQI
• CQI embraces BEC community goals, volunteer
  indicators committees

4
CQI Today

• Three staff
• Quality Leadership Team 13 community members
• 7 indicators committees
• Over 30 volunteers
• 55 corporate/nonprofit members
• Fees ranging from 30 (student) to 3000
  (Foundation)

5
CQI Deliverables

• Community Performance Report
• Conferences
• Professional Development focused on CQI
• Community Café Series

6
The Community Performance ReportA Homegrown
Solution based on Best Practices
7
Why bother?

• Bring plans to life (OP, Strat, etc.)
• Accountability and transparency
• Requirement a component of ICSP
• Engage the community in moving forward
• Celebrate successes
• Market the community
• Address challenges before they become problems

8
Who gets this thing going?

• To initiate the process
• Municipality
• EDC
• United Way
• Social Development Council
• To drive and continue the process
• The entire community

9
What Should be Measured?

• Those things that can improve or undermine
  sustainability each community is unique
• CQIs process seven issues that impact quality
  of life
• Culture, recreation and the arts
• Economy
• Environment
• Education
• Governance (tricky)
• Health
• Social Well Being (poverty, homelessness,
  exclusion, etc.)

10
Quantitative vs. Qualitative

• Expert resources make data highly reliable
• Quick and relatively easy to acquire information
• Comparable to other communities
• Historical analysis
• Could mislead (i.e. crime)
• Limited time periods (i.e. census)

• Information behind the numbers
• Allows for community engagement from outset
• Easier to make link from problems to solutions
• Cannot generalize results to the broader
  community
• Slower, costly
• Trouble comparing to other communities if
  different questions

11
The old view of Community
12
The Better View
13
The Sustainable View
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
The CQI Process
18
Community Vision

• Classic visioning exercise
• Look beyond 5 years 20, 30, 50 years
• Puts it beyond current restrictions, policies
• Multiple stakeholder
• Balance of experts, practitioners, public
• Third party facilitation no agenda

19
Selection of Indicators

• Driven by community goals, which are driven by
  vision
• Goals identified by issue areas (CQI uses 7,CVI
  uses 9)
• Indicators selected by asking what do we need to
  measure to ensure were moving toward our goal?
• As large a list as necessary it will be pared
  down

20
What is a good indicator?

• Relevant to the issue (i.e. amount of gas in tank
  instead of octane of the gas)
• Understandable clear insight, not overly
  technical
• Reliable trusted source (you know the
  information is collected properly)
• Timely still able to act in time to affect
  change

21
Turning Data into Information

• Points of convergence among indicators
• Economy influences environment and society
• Society influences economy and environment
• Environment influences economy and society

22
Public Launch and Review

• Enrage and Engage
• No scoring or grading of community
• Education tool, engagement tool
• Let community score itself
• Benchmarking, goal setting by experts and regular
  citizens
• Buy-in, commitment
• Civic pride

23
Agenda for Action

• Seven committees identify areas requiring
  improvement
• Strategize ways to address the problem
• Identify who will do what, how, when
• Produce report on findings, pledge or declaration
  of commitment to action
• Regular monitoring reports to the media
• Keeps the issues alive keeps attention focused
  on report

24
Keeping the Vision alive

• Each committee works toward achieving respective
  goal through Agenda for Action
• Regular (annual? Bi-annual? Longer?) review of
  community vision, goals, indicators and
  performance report to ensure forward momentum
• Keep process current update goals, even update
  vision as necessary
• Not the destination but the journey that matters

25
Resources

• Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators, Second
  Edition, by Maureen Hart (www.sustainablemeasures.
  com)
• Results that Matter, by Paul D. Epstein, Paul M.
  Coates and Lyle D. Wray (www.resultsthatmatter.net
  )
• Environment Canada Sustainable Community
  Indicators Program (http//www.ec.gc.ca/soer-ree/e
  nglish/scip/default.cfm)

26
Resources continued

• The Sustainability Report (www.sustreport.org/home
  .html)
• Smart Growth (www.smartgrowth.org/Default.asp?res
  800
• Centre for Sustainable Community Development
  (www.fcm.ca/english/cscd/sustainablecommunities.ht
  ml)

27
Resources continued

• Redefining Progress (www.rprogress.org)
• Community Social Data Strategy (www.ccsd.ca/subsit
  es/socialdata/home.html)
• Canadian Sustainability Indicators Network
  (www.csin-rcid.ca/)
• The Natural Step (www.naturalstep.ca)
• Integrated Community Sustainability Plan
  (www.amo.on.ca/AM/Template.cfm?SectionFederal_Gas
  _Tax2Template/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfmContentID14993
  9)

28
THANK YOU!Questions?Ken Coulter, Executive
DirectorCommunity Quality Improvementk.coulter_at_c
ityssm.on.cawww.qualitycommunity.ca