In 2015 the Town of Smithers, Northern Health, and the Bulkley Valley Social Planning Society established a Partnering for Healthier Communities (P4HC) Committee to explore and define a set of community vitality indicators for Smithers. Their goal is to establish, measure, and report annually on a set of local indicators that accurately reflect trends in the vitality and wellbeing of the community in all of its dimensions.
Their work produced the 2016 Smithers Community Vitality Report Card. The Vitality Report Card serves as a discussion piece for the community as the first collective version of local indicators. Download it here.
What are Community Vitality Indicators?
There is an emerging understanding of the importance of creating healthier communities, yet we have few tools to comprehensively measure progress in this regard. In the absence of such tools, many rely on simplistic progress indicators (i.e. population growth or number of building permits) that have limited connection with community wellbeing.
Community Vitality measures the strength, activity and inclusiveness of relationships between residents, private sector, public sector and civil society organizations that fosters individual and collective wellbeing.
Below are the Smithers Community Vitality Report Card and project background resources, including an introduction to community vitality indicators, past community discussions and presentations.
- The 2016 Community Vitality Forum was held on Tuesday, November 29, 2016, to review the 2016 Report Card. A summary report of the event is available here.
- Introduction to Community Vitality Indicators (Discussion Piece)
- Full Summary of the October 8th, 2015, Community Forum – A gathering of a variety of community leaders started the discussion on what we should measure as a community and who can help. A short one-page summary (After Thoughts)
- October 7, 2015 Audio Link to keynote speaker Dr. Trevor Hancock – over the past 30 years, as an internationally recognized health promotion leader, Dr. Hancock has helped put health on the agenda of thousands of cities and towns around the world.
- P4HC Committee Terms of Reference.
- Taylor Bachrach, Mayor of Smithers, speaks to the importance of measuring indicators of success that are meaningful to healthy communities in this PlanH video.
