Measuring Progress: Community Indicators and the Quality of Life
Author: David Swain, DPA
Date: 2002
Abstract: As communities and local governments have become increasingly concerned about quality-of life issues, community indicators have become a widely used tool to measure the status of the quality of life and progress being made toward improving it. Indicators provide a vehicle to understand and address community issues from a holistic and outcomes-oriented perspective. They are useful, within the context of an overall community-improvement process, both as a planning tool, based on a community’s vision, and as an evaluation tool to measure progress on steps taken toward improvement. Their usefulness is maximized when they are both directly tied to public-policy and budget decision making and when the community feels a sense of ownership of the indicators through direct citizen involvement with them. This article summarizes major approaches and issues in the national and international community-indicators movement and then focuses on the experience of the Jacksonville (Florida) Community Council Inc., a pioneer and leader in the community-indicators movement.
Tags: Impact, Indicator history, Policy, Quality of life, Sustainability,
Link to Resource: http://www.who.int/wssd/resources/indicators/en/
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Date: 2002
Abstract: As communities and local governments have become increasingly concerned about quality-of life issues, community indicators have become a widely used tool to measure the status of the quality of life and progress being made toward improving it. Indicators provide a vehicle to understand and address community issues from a holistic and outcomes-oriented perspective. They are useful, within the context of an overall community-improvement process, both as a planning tool, based on a community’s vision, and as an evaluation tool to measure progress on steps taken toward improvement. Their usefulness is maximized when they are both directly tied to public-policy and budget decision making and when the community feels a sense of ownership of the indicators through direct citizen involvement with them. This article summarizes major approaches and issues in the national and international community-indicators movement and then focuses on the experience of the Jacksonville (Florida) Community Council Inc., a pioneer and leader in the community-indicators movement.
Tags: Impact, Indicator history, Policy, Quality of life, Sustainability,
Link to Resource: http://www.who.int/wssd/resources/indicators/en/
DOWNLOAD
Related Projects: