Ottawa to get yearly health 'check up'

Community organization to publish report on infrastructure issues

The Ottawa Citizen
March 20, 2006
Don Butler

Page C1

Posted with permission from the

Ottawa Citizen.

Think of it as an annual checkup for our city.

Beginning next year, the Community Foundation of Ottawa plans to publish an annual report called Vital Signs that will monitor the city's health in a broad range of critical areas.

"We think it's fundamental to the way we're going to be doing business in the future," says Barbara McInnes, the community foundation's president and chief executive officer. "We'll be able to tell whether the community's improving or not in a number of different ways."

The idea is based on a project in Toronto, whose community foundation invented the Vital Signs concept in 2001. The Toronto report, updated each October, presents key indicators in 10 issue areas, including health and safety, opportunities for youth, housing, transportation, education, the environment and the arts.

"It's got some compelling reading," says Ms McInnes of the Toronto report. "It's kind of hard to put down. It's had a tremendous effect on how people look at their community."

While the community foundation won't do original research for Vital Signs, it will draw on extensive research done by organizations such as the city, the Social Planning Council, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation and the United Way.

"There's a huge amount of it," says Ms. McInnes. "What's different about this is that it's comprehensive, it's accessible and it's based on very, very solid research."

In Toronto, Vital Signs has become "a centrepiece for the whole strategic framework around our community development work," says Anne Swarbrick, the president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Community Foundation.

Other community organizations use it to help shape their own strategies, she says, as does the City of Toronto itself. "There's a growing interest in people using it and considering its implications."

Ms. Swarbrick says the report can help people identify factors that may be affecting the health of the ocmmuniyt.

In Toronto, where there is much concern about youth violence, the latest Vital Signs reported that youth unemployment is at a 10-year high, more than 6,000 elementary students are on waiting lists for special education programs and the number of youth involved in recreational programs has plummeted.

"When you connect dots like those togeher," says Ms. Swarbrick, "it leads you to be able to draw implications. That's exactly how we hope people will use Vital Signs."

By monitoring community changes over time, Ms. McInnes believes Ottawa's Vital Signs report will become a catalyst for discussion and policy debate. "It's an opportunity for the community to come to know itself in ways that it otherwise wouldn't."

It will also help the community foundation and other groups identify where they can make the greatest impact. "Everyone's first question is, 'Where's the biggest need?' " says Ms. McInnes.

Toronto's Vital Signs report lists between 30 and 40 different indicators of community health. But its website carries an expanded version that provides data on close to 100 different indicators.

Ms. McInnes says her organization plans to do the same thing. "People who want to delve into those numbers and get into what's behind them will have a chance to do so through the web."

Ottawa's community foundation had hoped to publish its first Vital Signs report in October. But after what Ms. McInnes describes as a "reality check," the timetable was pushed back to early 2007.

The Toronto foundation decided to publish its annual Vital Signs report in October so the findings can be considered by candidates and voters in municipal election years, says Ms. Swarbrick.

Ms. McInnes favours a similar publication timetable here. She emphasized that the Vital Signs report is not meant to focus on gloom and doom. "This is to find out what works in our community, too. It's what's working, and what needs to work a bit better."

Community foundations in Montreal, Victoria and Kitchener-Waterloo are actively working on Vital Signs projects of their own. Half-a-dozen community foundations in other cities have expressed serious interest.

One thing that's slowed progress on the Ottawa project is the absence of a dedicated manager. "We at the staff level are managing it off the corner of our desks," says Ms. McInnes, "which is not a really good way to get a good project."

The foundation has applied for funding from the Trillium Foundation so it can hire a project manager.

Ms. McInnes estimates the first report could cost up to $100,000, including staff time. But once the database has been compiled, annual updates should be much cheaper and easier to do.

© Ottawa Citizen 2006