In the second seminar of the Measuring Community Change series, Liz Weaver interviews Lynne Slotek about the Canadian Index of Well-being (CIW). The CIW is a measurement approach to determine changes in the quality of life and wellbeing of citizens and communities.
Learning Objective:
To become acquainted with the concepts of measuring community change efforts through indicators, indices and other approaches.
To learn about the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and its approach to measuring community wellbeing within the Canadian context.
Lynne Slotek - Lynne Slotek is the CEO of the Institute of Wellbeing and the National Project Director of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). Prior to joining the Canadian Index of Wellbeing project in 2003, Lynne held a number of senior executive positions with the Children’s Aid Foundation, Sistering and the John Howard Society. Over her career, Lynne has been a school of social work field instructor, a trainer and curriculum developer, and an independent consultant. She has a B.A. in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Social Work.
Liz Weaver - Liz Weaver, Lead Coach of the Vibrant Communities Canada team, provides coaching, leadership and support to Ontario community partners, including Opportunities Waterloo Region and the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction. As lead coach, she helps initiatives develop their frameworks of change, supports and guides their projects and helps connect them to Vibrant Communities and other comprehensive community collaborations. Read more here.
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) is a new way of measuring wellbeing that goes beyond economic measures like GDP. It provides insights into the quality of life of Canadians – overall, and in specific areas that matter.
The CIW shines a spotlight on the interconnections among areas: for example, how changes in income and education are linked to changes in health. When the index is complete at the end of 2010, the CIW will measure eight interconnected areas of wellbeing:
Living Standards - Quality and duration of employment, housing and food security, and the social safety net
Healthy Populations - Life circumstances, self-reported health, and satisfaction with healthcare services
Community Vitality - Social and community engagement, volunteering, community caring and inclusion
Education - From early learning to adult education and lifelong learning
Democratic Engagement - Voter turnout, interest, perception, and satisfaction with democracy, representation of women and Canada’s international contribution
Time Use - Unpaid work, precarious work, non-paid care giving, structured and unstructured activities, and frequency of parent-child reading activities among preschoolers
Arts, Culture and Recreation - Time spent in social recreation, and arts, and culture activities
Environment - Carbon emissions, water quality, solid wastes generation, energy use, conservation and recycling
In this clip, Lynne gives examples and explains why it is important to measure things that don’t show up in GDP.
The CIW wants to measure the quality of life in Canada regularly over time, starting from small communities but moving to a national scale, across sectors and beyond economic indicators. CIW works with Community Foundations of Canada’s Vital Signs and similar measurement initiatives to share information and encourage policymakers to make evidence based decisions that respond to the values and needs of Canadians.
Lynne explains in this clip how measurement initiatives support each other, apply the “coat rack” of the CIW to their own communities and work together as a “powerful force” to reshape the way we talk about wellbeing and public policy.
The CIW, including its categories and indicators, was developed by Canadians through three rounds of pan-Canada public engagement. From St. John’s, NL to Whitehorse, YK, Canadians were asked what mattered most to them. Each community, with the help of their United Way, choose who would participate, while following a matrix set by the CIW to ensure that there would be people at the table from all walks of life.
The lessons learned were:
Canadians share a set of values and beliefs that include fairness, equity, social justice, safety and security, inclusion, diversity, accountability and transparency despite regional, gender or any other differences.
The methodology, validation and ongoing availability of data has to be robust and rigorous, but it’s most important that the indicators can be used to affect peoples’ lives.
The indicators must be taken up by policymakers and stakeholders all year round, not just at election time, and this will be driven by community mobilization.
Here, Lynne talks about the partnerships and mobilization that are developing as they roll out the national index.
CIW wants to balance the robustness and rigour of the indices with interest in applying them and their relevance to the lives of Canadians. They have worked from the outset with a national roundtable of indicator experts and practitioners from government, academia and the community, called the Canadian Research and Advisory Group (CRAG).
CRAG members participated at the same tables with everyday Canadians during the public engagement process. The CIW also calls on a group of Canadian and international external reviewers and advisors to ensure their process is rigourous and informed.
Selection criteria for indicators include:
relevant to the concerns of both everyday Canadians and researchers
easy to understand
reliable and valid
politically unbiased
timely, easy to obtain and periodically updated
comparable across jurisdictions and groups
objective and subjective
positive and negative
a constituent or determinant of wellbeing, or both
attributable to individuals or groups
obtained through an open, transparent and democratic consultatative process
contributes to a coherent and comprehensive view of the wellbeing of Canadians
In addition to its international advisors, CIW is well connected to other wellbeing indices through participation in the OECD’s Measuring the Progress of Societies project. They have benefited from the expertise and experience of groups like the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in developing a composite index.
Listen to Lynne describe how the CIW has learned from and helped groups working on wellbeing indices in Australia, Israel, Wales and elsewhere.
The vision of the Institute for Wellbeing is that the CIW will become the ‘go to’ index for the public, the media, and policymakers. Reports on the remaining five categories of wellbeing, along with the composite index that will include all eight indices, will be released by the end of 2010.
Lynne and the CIW organizers welcome inquiries about collaboration opportunities and encourage everyone to visit www.ciw.ca and join the list serve so that they receive regular updates and can connect with the CIW as it develops.
Measuring More Collaboration- This paper provides an overview of different approaches which organizations and governments have used to measure “collaboration”.
Measuring More Community Engagement - This paper explores metrics drawn from a variety of sources including Vibrant Community experiences and local, national and international sources, that measure the engagement of citizens in their communities.
Less Poverty & More Vibrant Communities - In the first seminar of the “Measuring Community Change” series, Liz Weaver and Lidia Kemeny discuss Vital Signs. Vital Signs is one approach contained in metrics papers developed by Vibrant Communities as part of the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Community Capacity Series. Access the online audio seminar here.
Institute of Wellbeing - This website provides the history and structure of the Institute, explains the Canadian Index of Well-being and provides links to its reports and to similar initiatives around the world.
A Closer Look at Select Groups - This December 2009 report looks more closely at the experience of Canadians with low incomes, aboriginal peoples, racialized groups; and youth. Access the full report here or a summary of the main points in a fact sheet here.
Economic Crisis through Economic Wellbeing Lens - This report, The Economic Crisis through the Lens of Economic Wellbeing, about the 2008-2009 recession, concluded that the only way to avoid sustained poverty and unemployment is for government to focus on two priorities: designing and implementing income supplements and retraining for those who have lost their jobs; and measures to offset the shortfall in private spending. Access the report highlights here.
In the second seminar of the Measuring Community Change series, Liz Weaver interviews Lynne Slotek about the 
Lynne Slotek - Lynne Slotek is the CEO of the Institute of Wellbeing and the National Project Director of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). Prior to joining the Canadian Index of Wellbeing project in 2003, Lynne held a number of senior executive positions with the Children’s Aid Foundation, Sistering and the John Howard Society. Over her career, Lynne has been a school of social work field instructor, a trainer and curriculum developer, and an independent consultant. She has a B.A. in Sociology and a Masters Degree in Social Work.
Liz Weaver - Liz Weaver, Lead Coach of the Vibrant Communities Canada team, provides coaching, leadership and support to Ontario community partners, including Opportunities Waterloo Region and the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction. As lead coach, she helps initiatives develop their frameworks of change, supports and guides their projects and helps connect them to Vibrant Communities and other comprehensive community collaborations. 
