As communities and local governments have become increasingly concerned about quality-of-life issues, community indicators have become a widely used tool to measure the status of the quality of life and progress being made toward improving it. Indicators provide a vehicle to understand and address community issues from a holistic and outcomes-oriented perspective. They are useful, within the context of an overall community-improvement process, both as a planning tool, based on a community’s vision, and as an evaluation tool to measure progress on steps taken toward improvement. Their usefulness is maximized when they are both directly tied to public-policy and budget decision making and when the community feels a sense of ownership of the indicators through direct citizen involvement with them. This article summarizes major approaches and issues in the national and international community-indicators movement and then focuses on the experience of the Jacksonville (Florida) Community Council Inc., a pioneer and leader in the community-indicators movement.
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A Guide to Community Quality-of-Life Assessments
Marian Chambers. Copyright 1994 by the Jacksonville Community Council Inc.
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In 1994, JCCI published a manual to help other communities develop quality of life indicator projects. To further JCCI's mission of improving the quality of life in Northeast Florida and beyond, JCCI presents the manual as a service to the thousands of people working to build better communities around the world. For assistance in implementing the steps identified in the manual, contact JCCI for consulting rates.