In Squamish, Vital Signs presents an opportunity to take stock of community issues

By Tara Ramsey

“It is easy to sit up and take notice, what is difficult is getting up and taking action” – Honore de Balzac

Vital Signs is an opportunity to take stock of key community issues. This snapshot allows us to pause and evaluate how we are doing. Communities receive information that helps determine successes and gaps in services. This focuses energy on what will hopefully result in action. Recently, I took action by joining a “food bank flash mob” which resulted in donations to those in need. I hope as Vital Signs is digested more action will transpire.

Tara Ramsey, Vital Signs committee member

Squamish’s Vital Signs reveals we are doing really well in Health and Wellness. Our obesity rate is 6.2%, which is 65.7% below the national average. Not surprising since we are known for being the “Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada.” On the downside, our Violent Crime Rates are shocking, as we were 66.2% above the national average.

Squamish is a community in transition. Although I believe “the only constant is change” (Heraclitus), Squamish has been adapting to significant changes. It has changed from being resource-based, where now nearly one-third of occupations are in sales and service. In nine years:

- 2003 Interfor sawmill curtailed operations / closed (2004) (*-185 jobs)

- 2004 BC Rail privatization / CN Rail purchase (*-300 jobs)

- 2006 Woodfibre pulp mill closed (*-323 jobs)

- Real estate market high and low

- 2008 beginning of economic downturn

- Highway improvement / 2010 Olympics – including Pre and Post – influx of people / temporary employment

*stats: http://www.thesquamishreporter.ca/index.php?id=149

Squamish Community Foundation indicated that with financial support they would write a follow-up report. In light of all of these changes, combined with 2011 census results, I believe this would be crucial to assess our improvements.

Tara Ramsey is a Vital Signs committee member with Squamish Community Foundation

CFC brings Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Trust into the community foundation fold

By Skana Gee

When the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust joined Community Foundations of Canada last month, it seemed a perfect fit.

“Like CFC, our goals focus on healthy communities and community vitality,” says Rebecca Hurwitz, Managing Director of the CBT.

The Trust was established in 2000 – after years of infamous resource management disputes – when residents of this B.C. area came together to look at ways to be more sustainable without abandoning the traditional economic activities of the region, including logging and fishing.

Home to the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, the Trust conducts and supports research, education and programs that advance conservation, build our understanding of natural processes in the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and promote the health of individuals and communities throughout the region.

Those efforts are made possible by a $12-million endowment, the Canada Fund, from the federal government.

Hurwitz, who joined the Trust in 2005 after working with members on a university-based research project, says representatives who attended CFC’s national conference in Saskatoon in 2006 were sold on the idea of joining the movement.

“I’ve always been so impressed by the level of work that we see CFC delivering,” she says, noting the CBT operates like much any other community foundation, with an annual call for proposals, a scholarship program, and five advisory committees.

“We are ready to take our investment in the region to the next level,” Hurwitz said in a recent news release.

“The eight communities of the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere are caring for one of our country’s most treasured places. We are proud to have them join our efforts to build smart and caring communities,” added Ian Bird, CFC’s President and CEO.

Hurwitz says the trust is looking forward to accessing the resources provided to Community Foundations of Canada’s 180 members, and collaborating with like-minded groups across the country. She’s also excited about participating in Vital Signs 2012, which ties in nicely with work the CBT began in 2007 around community vitality indicators.

“We haven’t done a public report at this point, so it’s great to be on this timeline,” she says.

The CBT has close links with local schools and recently developed a student curriculum on sustainability. Hurwitz – currently traveling with a high-school school group in China – hopes to eventually start a Youth in Philanthropy program with in the Trust.

Skana Gee is Communications Coordinator with Community Foundations of Canada.

Community engagement lends Vital Signs even more value in South Okanagan

By Aaron McRann

After witnessing the success of Vital Signs in other communities, the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan committed to its first Vital Signs report in 2011.

Based on the experience of others, we expected going in to this process that we would have the opportunity to highlight key areas of need in the community. We expected that we would offer a document that could provide an unbiased assessment of the health of our community. We expected that the document would be used by many different groups to inform their plans for the future.

And just months after the launch of our first Vital Signs report, we’re happy to have experienced all three of these wonderful benefits.

South Okanagan's leadership team

However, the side benefits that we have enjoyed by engaging in this process are also worth noting. By engaging an effective Community Leadership Team, made up of prominent leaders from every sector of our community, we have been able to forge much stronger alliances that will remain important for years to come.

The process of working together to craft this first Vital Signs report required commitment, ingenuity, compromise, and imagination from each of our Leadership Team members. This level of engagement not only sold them on Vital Signs as a key tool for driving change, but on the Community Foundation as a leader in steering and coordinating that change for the future.

Another very gratifying “surprise” was the level of community interest in the process. In all, the local newspapers provided eleven articles about Vital Signs including discussions of its roots, its development process, and its outcomes. More than 660 citizens completed our community survey, fully three times our expectations.

The end result is a valuable, unbiased report that truly is the voice of our citizens … awesome!

Aaron McRann is Executive Director of the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan

Vibrant community sport sector an important ingredient in community vitality

By Barbara McMillan

Community foundations understand the value that sport brings to communities, and why programs involving sports are worth supporting.

Whether the focus is on athletic performance or fostering healthy lifestyles, engaging volunteers or cultivating leadership, building confidence or building community, we know that a vibrant, accessible, and adequately funded community sport sector is an important ingredient of community vitality.

We also know that it can be a challenge for sport organizations to access the resources necessary to allow them to meet the demand for their programs, and increase their capacity, their impact or their reach.  And for funders, there may be procedural, capacity or awareness barriers that might limit their ability to support sport organizations in the way they would like.

That’s why more than 60 representatives from sport organizations and community and other foundations, including Ian Bird, Community Foundations of Canada’s President and CEO, recently gathered for a day-long symposium at the UBC John MS Leckie Boathouse in Richmond to explore opportunities to work together to enhance sports philanthropy.

We heard many stories of how community foundations are supporting sport through grants, agency endowments, legacy funds, and infrastructure projects. And we heard about the power of sport to change lives, improve health outcomes, and strengthen community. But we also learned about the regulatory, resource, and turf barriers that can limit capacity and impact.

Initial feedback about the meeting has been overwhelmingly positive. Sport groups and community foundations appreciated the opportunity to learn more about each other and to start a conversation about how we can more intentionally and strategically connect our sport and our philanthropy organizations and networks.

One of the immediate outcomes is that the sport organizations that participated now see community foundations as partners rather than funders.

We’re now pulling together the notes from the meeting, and will be considering how – with some of the many ideas generated and relationships initiated – we will foster a sport and community philanthropy strategy.

As one participant noted: “There is so much value in this discussion, and sharing information may result in movement toward collaboration – let’s keep the discussion going and expand it.”

Stay tuned …

Barbara McMillan is Community Foundations of Canada’s Director of Regional Strategies

Vital Signs reveals 16 per cent of Kingston residents living below poverty line

By Vikram Varma

Kingston & Area’s 2011 Vital Signs talked about the working poor, revealing that more than one in 10 of the people using food banks have a job.

The Kingston Community Roundtable on Poverty Reduction recently released a Living Wage report for Kingston, in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. A living wage is based on the principle that full-time work should provide families with a basic level of economic security, not keep them in poverty. It is the amount needed for a family of four with two parents working full-time to pay for basic necessities, support the healthy development of their children, escape financial stress and participate in their communities.

Executive Director Vikram Varma

In Kingston, the report calculated that a living wage amounts to $16.29 an hour, for each parent working full-time, year-round jobs. This is substantially higher than the Canadian minimum wage and almost 35,000 people in Kingston’s regional labour force have yearly incomes below the annualized equivalent of minimum wage.

We at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area realize the minimum wage is not sufficient for Kingstonians to earn a liveable income and an equitable standard of living. As a result, 16% of Kingstonians subsist below the poverty line and about 13% of Kingstonians are identified as working poor.

The Roundtable hosted a discussion on the living wage last fall featuring well known economists Don Drummond and Jim Stanford as the keynote speakers. I was happy to hear Mr. Drummond mention that one initiative that had proven results in breaking the cycle of poverty was Pathways to Education, one of the programs for which we have helped raise funds.

Vikram Varma is Executive Director at the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area

Vital Signs continues to shed light, motivate action, on physician recruitment problem in Southeastern Alberta

By Jayne Halladay

Since our first Vital Signs was issued in 2007, the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta has reported on the lack of family physicians for our community.

Since then we have gone from about 13% of our population (12 and over) without a family physician to more than 20% in 2011.

Jayne Halladay of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta

For the first time, in 2010, Medicine Hat was above the national rate of 15% – at about 18% – and the rate continues to climb.

As a result of the yearly increase in our population without a family doctor, the Community Foundation convened a group of community leaders, including representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the City of Medicine Hat and an Alberta Health Services body known as the Physician Recruitment Group, to address the growing concern.

The Physician Recruitment Group is working to enhances the efforts of Alberta Health Services recruitment efforts to highlight the quality of life in our community. The focus is not only on the doctors but their families, as well as on providing a 360-degree view of a place we hope they will call home.

Jayne Halladay is Community Impact Coordinator with the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta

TV partner helps Victoria Foundation spread the word about Vital Signs

By Stephanie Slater

On Sunday, Jan. 22, CHEK TV News aired a special feature story about the 1000 x 5 Children’s Book Recycling Project in Greater Victoria’s Saanich Peninsula.

The next morning, the phones started ringing at The Victoria Foundation, which had sponsored the story – the first in a weekly series called Vital People. 

1000 x 5 is a project supported by the foundation that aims to ensure every child in their region has a minimum of 1,000 books read to them by the time they are five years old. Callers wanted to donate books – and not just a few! Two callers each had collections of hundreds of books. Jim Munro, owner of Munro’s Books, asked for a meeting with the 1000 x 5 project leader. Other callers asked about replicating the program in their communities. One call came from an organization that works with people who have developmental disabilities. They arranged to bring some of their clients to the weekly sessions where the books are cleaned and sorted.

All this from one, three-minute television story! It was an immediate affirmation of the value of the project – a partnership between the foundation and CHEK TV. For a fraction of the regular cost of advertising, Vital People provides a weekly profile of people and organizations working on the vital issues outlined in Victoria’s Vital Signs® report.

“Vital People spreads the messages highlighted in the Vital Signs reports about needs and opportunities to make a difference in our communities,” said Sandra Richardson, CEO of The Victoria Foundation.

The series not only keeps Vital Signs alive throughout the year, it reinforces the community report card as a project of The Victoria Foundation, helping to boost awareness and understanding of the foundation’s breadth of work.

Vital People stories are posted on the foundation’s website and are also available to the organizations profiled for posting on their websites. These stories will also be featured as part of the soon-to-be-launched Community Knowledge Centre – the searchable database that will showcase registered charities that have received grants from the foundation. Stay tuned for more developments!

For another example of bringing the Vital Signs message forward, see the new Vital Signs checklist featured in the January edition of The Victoria Foundation’s Philanthropy page – a monthly newspaper feature sponsored in partnership with Black Press.

Stephanie Slater is Director of Communications with The Victoria Foundation