Vital Signs attracts media coverage from coast to coast to coast

Along with our national report – Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 – Vital Youth  – community foundations in 14 communities across Canada also released Vital Signs 2012 reports last week.

And they garnered much media attention, as well. Here’s a sampling:

Calgary:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Vital+Signs+survey+Calgarians+happy/7329225/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/10/02/calgary-foundation-vital-signs.html

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/video/kerry+longpre+the+calgary+foundation/video.html?v=2286052831#morningnews/video/special+guests

Toronto:

http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/vitalsigns/article/1264813–toronto-s-vital-signs-report-2012

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/390444/torontos-vital-signs-report-says-were-doing-not-too-bad/

Clayoquot Sound Region:

http://www2.canada.com/westerly/story.html?id=326c3dea-3930-42f1-9b18-cff568b0f68e

Halifax:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/editorials/143535-halifax-vital-signs-fountain-of-youth-needs-fix

https://charityvillage.com/Content.aspx?topic=Vital_Signs_2012_Halifax

http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/390265/aging-population-reaching-crisis-point-in-halifax-report-suggests/

Victoria:

http://www.ctvvancouverisland.ca/tag/victoria-vital-signs/

http://www.timescolonist.com/Vital+Signs+grade+assessment+Greater+Victoria/7330798/story.html

Medicine Hat:

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CD4QFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicinehatnews.com%2Flocal-news%2Fmedia-panel-discuss-2012-vital-signs-10052012.html&ei=3L52UJW9KoH68gSVvIDgCQ&usg=AFQjCNETFM30SoOOrecLKvv3GN-KQ59r2Q&sig2=b2qw-wpRIe4lIqYqZeEQ4A

Winkler, MB:

http://www.pembinavalleyonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29286&Itemid=33

London:

http://www.lfpress.com/2012/10/01/vital-signs-study-were-broken-we-need-to-heal

http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/2012/10/child-poverty-in-london-doubled-in-two-years-vital-signs-report/

Waterloo Region:

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/vital-signs-report-explores-how-to-improve-waterloo-region-1.980400

http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/810575–vital-signs-charities-offer-solution-to-decline-in-volunteerism

Hamilton:

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2012/10/03/hamilton-domestic-violence-vital.html

http://www.thespec.com/opinion/editorial/article/810737–hamilton-lags-on-immigration-and-inequity

Burlington:

http://www.insidehalton.com/news/article/1512238–vital-signs-reports-poverty-youth-issues

Sudbury:

http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2012/10/02-vital-signs-report-sudbury.aspx

Kingston:

http://www.thewhig.com/2012/10/01/vital-signs-diagnosis-on-communitys-health

Montreal:

https://charityvillage.com/Content.aspx?topic=Vital_Signs_2012_Montreal

http://www.west-end-times.com/index.php/montreal-lags-behind/

“Providing communities with the information they need to make critical decisions about their future is just one of the many ways community foundations help to build smart and caring communities,” said Ian Bird, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada.

Our Vital Signs blog is moving! Check out our new home here…

VitalYouth shines some light on Canadian youth

Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 – Vital Youth launched yesterday, focusing on the myriad issues facing Generation Flux. We garnered lots of media attention, which kept CFC’s President and CEO Ian Bird hopping with back-to-back interviews throughout most of the day and evening. That continues today, amidst the backdrop of Vital Youth Café, our dialogue and design workshop happening at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Here’s a sampling of media coverage so far:

• Carleton U.’s School of Public Policy and Administration
• CBC News
• HuffingtonPost
• CBC News (video)
• Metro News
• Vancouver Sun
• Ottawa Sun

Our Vital Signs blog is moving! Check out our new home here…

Find out how seismic shifts are shaking Canada’s youth on Oct. 2

Youth will be the focus of CFC’s 2012 Canada’s Vital Signs report, to be released during a special presentation by President & CEO Ian Bird at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy & Administration on Oct. 2. We’ll spend the rest of the day on Parliament Hill, briefing media and politicians about our findings and then hosting some close colleagues in our new Ottawa office.

We’ll post all the stats and research, including a new YouTube video, on our newly redesigned Vital Signs website on Oct. 2.

Join us @ Carleton!

Vital Signs comes to the Emerald Isle

2012 will see the release of Ireland’s first ever VitalSigns report, based on the award-winning Canadian Vital Signs.

Produced by The Community Foundation for Ireland, Ireland’s VitalSigns 2012 will help the Community Foundation do what it does best – connecting people who care with causes that matter.

Canada’s Vital Signs in good company with global award

By Cindy Lindsay

News that Canada’s Vital Signs is receiving an Impact Award from the US-based Community Indicators’ Consortium serves as a terrific motivator leading into our 2012 Vital Signs launch on Oct. 2.

This recognition by our international colleagues is very rewarding – it reinforces the impact Vital Signs has when it engages the community around indicators and the opportunity to create change.

The award goes to “projects that best demonstrate the power of indicators to drive positive community change.”

Jim Farnam of CIC told me that our Vital Signs work came to his organization’s attention via two webinars conducted by my colleague Sara Lyons, CFC’s program director. They were impressed by “the story of how you have put together such a thorough project and continually refined the model to engage large numbers of people locally in the work,” he told me.

We see that phenomenon at work daily, in Vital Signs-inspired projects ranging from Connections and Engagement, a survey of community belonging by Vancouver Foundation; the Langar Project, a meal service for South Asian immigrants funded by Community Foundation of Mississauga; and a social marketing campaign targeting teen pregnancy spearheaded by the Greater Saint John Community Foundation.

And of course Vital Signs is intrinsically linked to Smart & Caring Communities, a new initiative from Community Foundations of Canada in response to a call by Governor General David Johnston, CFC’s Patron, for help in making Canada a more smart and caring nation.

Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the CIC is an active, open learning network and global community of practice among those interested or engaged in the field of indicators development and application.

The Impact Award will be presented to Canada’s Vital Signs in November during CIC Impact Summit 2012 in Maryland. We are thrilled to receive this honour, and to share the work of Vital Signs with a global audience.

Cindy Lindsay is CFC’s Director of Member Services, and is spearheading Canada’s Vital Signs 2012.

The Calgary Foundation releases Youth Vital Signs 2012

“Calgary is a great place to be a youth!” That’s what Calgarians, aged 12-20, are saying in the 2012 Youth Vital Signs Report. In fact, Calgary youth rated their overall quality of life a B.

Published for the first time in 2010, as a partnership between The Calgary Foundation and Youth Central, the 2012 edition of Youth Vital Signs is hot off the press. Inspired by The Calgary Foundation’s Calgary’s Vital Signs Report, the Youth Vital Signs Report combines the opinions and perspectives of youth, aged 12-20, with timely research to inform the public and private sectors, governments, youth funders and youth-serving charitable organizations.

This year, we were excited to learn that 26% of survey graders were born outside of Canada – adding unique voices to the survey results. The report showed high levels of youth engagement and volunteerism. In fact, 72% of graders indicated they have volunteered within the past year.

The report revealed some eyebrow-raising data. For instance, Canadian teens spend an average of 6 hours a day in front of a screen… substantially more than the recommended 2 hours. On a positive note, survey graders who indicated they participated regularly in a recreational activity were significantly more likely to rate their physical and mental well-being as high, compared to those who did not participate regularly in sports.

Calgary Youth Vital Signs Report Highlights

• Employment & Training: C+
  Calgary youth unemployment rates reached 14% in 2010, nearly double the 2008 rate of 7.4%. Alberta has also seen a 27% drop in on-the-job apprenticeship registrations since 2006.

• Health & Safety: B-
  Youth crime rates continue to decrease in Calgary, with the total youth crime rate dropping by 33% between 2006 and 2010.

• Identity and Belonging: C+
  Youth told us that there is a growing sense of belonging and an increase in opportunities to embrace cultural differences. One area of research was less positive… the high school dropout rate for Alberta ESL learners is more than double the average.

• Youth Spaces: C+
  Youth commented that while Calgary is home to many recreation and leisure centres, including Shaw Millennium Skate Park, there is a real need for more youth-friendly spaces – specifically places out of the downtown core.

University town provides hope of higher education to local children

When Wolfville’s Vital Signs 2009 revealed significant poverty in the community, many were shocked.

“It’s a seemingly affluent university town,” says Allison Kouzovnikov, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia, home to the Wolfville Community Fund (WCF) which led the community-based report.

To address the issue, the WCF funded breakfast and afterschool programs, and partnered with the Wolfville Area Inter-Church Council to help residents access the Canada Learning Bond, a federal grant that contributes $500 to an RESP (and $100 each year after) for children living in low-income families.

The Wolfville Community Fund is helping residents access the Canada Learning Bond, a federal RESP program aimed at low-income families.

Parents don’t have to contribute. But they do need to obtain and file the right paperwork, which at nearly $30 per child, can be cost prohibitive.

Helping parents to save for education may be controversial if they are struggling to put food on the table. However, the WCF understood the need for both immediate and longer-term approaches.

“How many children walk past Acadia University never giving it a second thought that a higher education is something that is possible for them too?” asks Dick Groot, Chair of the WCF. “If we want our children to grow up and be good citizens we need to instil in them not only the desire, but the real possibility that a better life can be made through hard work, sacrifice and dedication.”

“The WCF’s work reflects the community foundation philosophy,” says Kouzovnikov. “We help communities build the social and financial capital they need, both today and tomorrow.”

Social marketing campaign will help tackle longstanding teen pregnancy issue in Greater Saint John

Teen parents often face a lifetime of extraordinary challenges. In Saint John, NB, the last five Vital Signs reports have pegged the rate of teen pregnancies at almost double the provincial average.

In 2009-10, 132 of the 1,706 babies (7.7 per cent) born in the city were born to teens – and one third of those were birthed by mothers under the age of 18. Failing to complete high school, living in poverty, and single parenting are all potential results.

“Teen pregnancy has a profound impact on the lives of teen parents and their families,” says public health nurse Penny Higdon, who heads up the Greater Saint John Teen Pregnancy Committee, an awareness and advocacy group.

Teens with children face many challenges, but advocates in Saint John are making a difference.

“It’s difficult to measure the cause and effect, but it makes all kinds of sense to have people from various areas of interest coming together and working on this issue,” says Greater Saint John Community Foundation Executive Director Jane Barry.

“And it’s an issue that requires a multi-pronged approach.”

Now, thanks in part to a $30,000 grant from the Community Foundation, the committee will be embarking on an extensive, multi-faceted social marketing campaign, with help from corporate partners Revolution Strategy and Hemmings House Pictures.

Higdon says it will be influenced by local youth and target those at greatest risk.

 

Vital Signs City Shape Up videos shine spotlight on Medicine Hat health issues

Did you know that, as of 2009, the rate of people identified as smokers in Medicine Hat was 56.2 above the national average?

It’s a shocking situation, one of several identified in a new series of video vignettes aimed at raising public awareness, created by the Community Foundation of Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta and local television station CHAT-TV.

Part of the Community Foundation’s Vital Signs initiatives, the first video in the City Shape Up series also points out that flavoured spit tobacco is being used in huge numbers by youth. And that 40 per cent of those products sold in Canada are purchased in Alberta.

It’s a thought-provoking and well-made series that also focuses on other health topics, including different aspects of smoking, as well as the importance of healthy breakfasts.

You can find out more here

Vital Signs leads to action on affordable housing in BC’s Boundary communities

By Sara Lyons

In 2009, The Phoenix Foundation of Boundary Communities, located in the region of BC between the Okanagan Valley and the West Kootenay, on the Canada/US border, published its first Vital Signs report.

It was a strong collaborative effort within the cluster of seven small communities that make up the region. In her opening message, Foundation President Maxine Ruzicka noted that the report highlights areas of need to encourage further dialogue and response from institutions, elected leaders, charitable organizations, and citizens.

The local economy in the Boundary is largely resource-based and times have been tough recently. Boundary Communities’ Vital Signs identified poverty as one of three key priority areas for action and improvement. Along those lines, of particular note in the report was the fact that locally, there is an acute lack of affordable, adequate rental options. Renting a home is more expensive than owning. Further, 10% of residents, and 24% of children in one town, are living in poverty. And these are figures arising prior to the 2008 economic downturn.

This past April, one local community, Grand Forks, was host to the groundbreaking for a special and unique Habitat for Humanity housing project, one that will allow seven adults with developmental disabilities to share in their own home.

courtesy Grand Forks Gazette

Community Foundation Board Member Linda Manzon was on hand to offer her congratulations: “The citizens of the Boundary told us in our Vital Signs project that two of the key issues in the Boundary were to develop affordable housing and to try and close the gap between rich and poor. This project does both remarkably well.” The initiative has drawn much public and media attention.

Leveraging the knowledge base they built through the process of doing Vital Signs, the community foundation is now looking to expand its convening role and challenging themselves and other local funders to act together and work “further upstream” on root causes of local problems.

Sara Lyons is Program Director at Community Foundations of Canada