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.

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Vital Youth Café melds youth, wisdom and expertise

Community Foundations of Canada’s recent Vital Youth Café brought together a multitude of individuals – mainly youth, but there were also others on hand to help move the discussion forward.

One of the various volunteers was Leah Walker, a writer, editor and broadcaster who spent part of the day as an Information Studies volunteer. Her mission? To provide research services to participants on questions related to helping vulnerable youth.

Read what Leah had to say about the event.

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Vital Youth Café digs deep, finds fertile soil

Vital Youth Café, the dialogue and design workshop hosted by Community Foundations of Canada in Ottawa this week, gave Montreal-based youth activist Jonathan Glencross the shot in the arm he was seeking.

“I wanted to see if what I’d been experiencing was also happening elsewhere – this disconnect between potential and impact,” he said afterward.

“It just really affirmed my understanding that we need to create spaces where youth can imagine seriously and break free from cookie-cutter expectations,” said the McGill University graduate.  “We need to ask bigger questions, find support and funding. We need sustained support to take a different path. I feel more strongly about that now than I ever have before. ”

The Vital Youth Café, held a day after the release of Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 – Vital Youth, drew a dynamic crowd of about 35 delegates to the stunning Panorama Room at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull.

The day-long event – taking us from statistics to solutions – was marked by raucous discussion and debate, both in small and large groups, as well as compelling presentations of ideas by participants.

“I can’t stress enough how great the facilitation was. It was a day of unexpected learnings and reflections and that’s always nice,” said Glencross. “I felt I was able to learn more things by diving into other people’s experiences … it felt like fertile soil.”

Agreed Amanda Mayer, Coordinator of the National Alliance for Children and Youth (NACY):  “Taking part in the Vital Youth Dialogue was a great way for me to help shine light on Canadian youth and issues we face today. I was energized by colleagues around the table and the discussions on new ideas, unique concepts and redefining success and failure amongst youth. There was lots of exuberant dialogue, compelling and practical solutions for GenerationFlux that I look forward to working on in the near future. Kudos to CFC for convening such a great community of colleagues to collectively work on solutions! ”

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

Hope. Connect. Care.

That’s what you get when you involve young people – Generation Flux, if you will – in the decision-making process.

“They will make sure you walk the talk,” Marc Langlois, facilitator for the Vital Youth Café, said yesterday.

The Vital Youth dialogue and design workshop, held a day after the release of Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 – Vital Youth, drew a dynamic crowd of about 35 delegates to the stunning Panorama Room at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull.

They came as engaged citizens, and as representatives of organizations as diverse as TakingItGlobal, National Alliance for Children and Youth, Vancouver Foundation, Greater Saint John Community Foundation, Canadian Index of Wellbeing, Carleton University, Otesha Project, Ici Par Les Arts, Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa, University of Ottawa, and our partners in Vital Youth, Deloitte.

The day-long event – taking us from statistics to solutions – was marked by raucous discussion and debate, both in small and large groups, as well as compelling presentations of ideas by participants.

As Langlois said: “I’m tired of hearing young people aren’t engaged. They are engaged. It’s just that Stats Can doesn’t know how to measure it.”

With the intent of sharing and building on a variety of perspectives and strategies on sustainability, entrepreneurship, employment, physical and mental health, accessibility, immigration, engagement, inclusion and more, Vital Youth Café will serve as a prototype for similar discussions at CFC 2013 Conference in Winnipeg next June, and in communities nationally.

“If you infuse youth in critical decision-making roles, there will be 1. More hope – because young people focus on vision – 2. You will have more connections, more relationships, and 3. There will be more of a focus on caring,” said Langlois.

In our next post … ideas and solutions from Vital Youth Café participants!

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…

Generation Flux: Seismic shifts shaking Canadian youth, says report from Community Foundations of Canada

The predictable trajectory that guided the lives of their parents is gone and Canada’s youth are coming of age in an era of complexity and uncertainty that has delayed or even destroyed the landmarks that once signalled life transitions, says the Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 –Vital Youth report.

“The linear path from school to career, home ownership, and family has disappeared,” said Ian Bird, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada. “We want communities to recognize that this is ‘the new normal.’ We need to work with youth to find better ways of preparing and supporting them for a journey that is less certain and more fragmented.”

The national quality-of-life report, released today, aims to provide communities and policy-makers with a snapshot of the youth experience in Canada. It pulls together research conducted by many organizations to paint a comprehensive picture of the economic, educational and societal factors affecting youth as they enter adulthood, amidst a backdrop of rapid change.

Among the report’s key findings are:

Big debt, little work. After graduation, youth are saddled with debt that can take 14 years to pay off. Then only piecemeal or part-time employment awaits: 1 out of 3 move into a low-skilled job after graduation.

Summer jobs at all-time low. The youth unemployment rate is consistently double the national average. In June, it was 14.8% compared to the national average of 7.2% and summer jobs in 2012 were at the lowest level since data was first collected in 1977.

Delays in post-secondary. Young people are delaying the start of post-secondary education to improve high-school grades, or save for tuition, which has risen up to 200% in some provinces in the past 20 years.

Retirees still working. Young people today face competition from Baby Boomers who are hanging onto jobs longer, or returning to work after retirement age.

Young people are already feeling financial and other impacts.A staggering 3.2 million of 12- to 19-year-olds in Canada are at risk for developing depression. A recent CAMH study of Ontario students also found that “the rate of students reporting psychological distress has risen to 43%, up from 36% in the 1999 survey.”

But growing up in an era of rapid change has also helped prepare youth for some of the challenges ahead. They are tech-savvy, connected to vast networks and are passionate about public policy and global issues, even if they don’t show it on voting day or via traditional institutions. They place a high value on personal relationships and want to align their values with the work they do.

“If any country can grapple with these challenges, it’s Canada,” said Bird. “We are one of the best educated countries in the world. But like others, we need to come to grips with the gap between who is thriving and who is being left behind. The consequences of inaction are too serious – for young people and our communities.”

The Vital Youth report is supported by Deloitte and will be released today at 9:30 a.m. at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, followed by a press conference at Parliament Hill at 12 noon. Community Foundations of Canada is also holding a Vital Youth Dialogue and Design Workshop in Ottawa on Oct. 3, to begin moving from research to action.

Communities across Canada releasing local reports
Vital Signs is an annual community check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada. It provides a comprehensive, reader-friendly look at how our communities are faring in key quality-of-life areas such as learning, health, housing and the environment.

Today, 14 community foundations across Canada launch their own local reports at vitalsignscanada.ca.

Community Foundations of Canada is the national network for Canada’s more than 180 community foundations, which help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work, and play. Find out more at www.cfc-fcc.ca.

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!

Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 digs deep into youth issues

Each fall Community Foundations of Canada releases its national Vital Signs report, and youth issues have consistently been flagged every year since its inception in 2006.

We know education, employment, health and technology are among the huge concerns facing Canada’s young people.

That’s why we’re dedicating Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 to youth, making connections between research in various areas to provide a critical snapshot of the issues facing Canadian youth at this point in our history.

On Oct. 2, we will be releasing our youth research along with a YouTube video promo that encapsulates some of the key findings from our Vital Signs research. Our focus on youth is intended to act as a catalyst for candid and creative conversations that will lead to action among Canada’s community foundations and Canadian communities.

To help move from statistics to solutions, we’re also hosting a Vital Youth Dialogue and Design Workshop on Oct. 3, a day for youth and youth advocates to share and build on a variety of perspectives and strategies on sustainability, entrepreneurship, employment, physical and mental health, accessibility, immigration, engagement, inclusion and more.

This highly interactive, solutions-focused day will serve as a prototype for similar discussions at the CFC 2013 Conference in Winnipeg next June, and in communities nationally.

Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks …

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.