2017 Impact Award: The Spartanburg Indicator Project

The Impact Award recognizes indicator projects that demonstrate the power of indicators to drive positive community change.  Winning projects use data to analyze, communicate community conditions, and catalyze action for making measurable and sustainable improvements in quality of community life.

Started in 1987 as Critical Indicators, the Project was established under the leadership of The Spartanburg County Foundation and published reports every 3 years. The partnership of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce lead to an enhanced Community Indicators V in 2001. With a new partnership with the United Way of the Piedmont, focus groups were held to further engage citizens, and in 2005, Community Indicators VI: Strategic Spartanburg was published.

Spartanburg Community Indicators Project presents data and engages the community in dialogue and strategy that leads to positive change in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The project facilitates organizations and individuals as they actively promote civic prosperity by using community indicator data to inform and guide their progress.  All grant funders in Spartanburg County have incorporated the indicators in their grant guidelines; they are used by non-profits to secure additional grants and are used as a basis for leveraging partnerships and resources.

The award was received by John Kimbrell of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, one of the indicator area leaders.

 

Hall of Heroes Award: Mike Salvaris

The Hall of Heroes Award recognizes leaders who have had significant, long-term impact on the indicators field and the improvement of community conditions and well-being.

Mike Salvaris is the 2017 Hall of Heroes Awardee for over 40 years in the fields of wellbeing, social justice, community engagement and development, government and social policy, and strategic policy coordination. For the past 20 years, he has worked as a academic and community researcher in the measurement of progress, wellbeing, and human rights at local, national and international levels.  He has collaborated with organizations all over the world on special projects, consultancies, research reports, policy development and advice, and strategic planning. Recently, he became a member of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Expert Reference Group helping to develop ‘Measures of Australia’s Progress’, he leads a national research project on measuring human rights at RMIT University, and he acts as committee member and co-founder of the Australian Community Indicators Network. For the last nine years, Mike has been working on the development of the Australian National Development Index (ANDI), a civil society-research partnership of over 60 national, state, and local organizations and universities whose members and clients include over 2 million Australians. ANDI aims to promote a national dialogue on Australia’s future progress and to develop an Australian national progress index measuring equitable and sustainable wellbeing in Australia, based on community priorities and expert and research input.

Mr. Salvaris traveled to St. Petersburg, FL, with a stop for a lecture at the University of Waterloo in Torronto, to receive his award from CIC Board Member Frank Ridzi.