The Greater Saint John Community Foundation released a unique report, “Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs® 2008”, on October 7th, on the quality of life in Greater Saint John. Vital Signs® is an annual community check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our cities, identifies significant trends, and assigns grades in at least ten areas critical to quality of life, using data compiled from many national, provincial and local sources. The Greater Saint John Community Foundation is part of this national effort.

 “Our Community Foundation was established in 1976 to improve the quality of life for our citizens” said Michael Doyle, Foundation Chairman. “With the support of our national membership organization, Community Foundations of Canada, we are in year three of a ten year project to annually gather and present data of wide benefit and interest to all sectors of our community” he added.

“Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs” displays economic and social data in ten broad categories or Indicators. They are: Population, Housing, Work, Belonging & Leadership, Safety, Health, Getting Started, Environment, Learning, Arts & Culture and The Gap between Rich and Poor. The aim is to ensure that the report has fairly, comprehensively and accurately described our community using the best data available. It is a quality of life measurement tool for community groups, leaders, businesses and researchers which will be repeated annually. It is posted on the Community Foundation’s web-site. The Greater Saint John Community Foundation has commissioned the Saint John Human Development Council, a social planning agency, with wide knowledge of our community, to produce the 2006, 2007 and 2008 reports. 

This project of Community Foundations of Canada, whose members number one hundred sixty-four community foundations, is being launched in fifteen Canadian communities today: Greater Saint John, Fredericton, Greater Montreal, Greater Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo Region, London and Middlesex, Guelph and Wellington, Oakville, Greater Sudbury, Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Metro Vancouver and Victoria.

Vital Signs Community Foundations seek out community opinions. Over the summer, the Community Foundation released an online survey on “Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs®”, using data highlights from the full report, to be released Oct. 7. They invited the public to “grade” our community’s quality of life. More than three hundred community members responded and gave their input into a “Star” grading for forty data sets, to be included in Greater Saint John’s 2008 “report card”. 

Positive local data on high employment rates, relatively modest housing costs, educational attainment, charitable giving and the substantial successes of local programs such as Habitat for Humanity’s “ReStore”, BCAPI, PALS (Partners Assisting Local Schools) and the Community Arts Board are being reported.  There are some trends and challenges which the Community Foundation is drawing to the community’s attention such as poverty, static population growth, and teen pregnancy levels.

Community Foundations of Canada is releasing their national Vital Signs Report which will highlight trends in participating communities. Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs report, and an overview, will be launched at their office, 40 King St. at 10am, October 7. All are welcome.

The Greater Saint John Community Foundation serves as a trustee for charitable, educational and cultural purposes. It administers funds given by the public-spirited individuals for the benefit of the people of this area. Since 1976, the Foundation’s assets have grown to approximately $9 Million. Applications from local registered charities are received twice yearly, April 15^th and September 30^th.

The Greater Saint John Community Foundation is releasing, “Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs®”, tomorrow (October 7th, 2008), a unique report on the quality of life in Greater Saint John, as part of a national effort. Vital Signs® is an annual community check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our cities, identifies significant trends, and assigns grades in at least ten areas critical to quality of life.  Data is compiled from many national, provincial and local sources. Vital Signs® is based on a project of the Toronto Community Foundation and is coordinated nationally by Community Foundations of Canada.

 “Our Community Foundation was established in 1976 to improve the quality of life for our citizens” said Michael Doyle, Foundation Chairman. “With the support of our national membership organization, Community Foundations of Canada, we have embarked on a ten year project to gather and present data of wide benefit to all sectors of our community on an annual basis. We’re not aware that other community organizations have taken this step and believe it’s part of our role as a community leader.” he added.

Last November, The Greater Saint John Community Foundation released a community “report card”, “Taking Stock”,  as a Thirtieth Anniversary project and precursor to the national Vital Signs® effort . The assessment of the vitality of the community, using national indicators, and local data is useful in charting the future. They have commissioned the Saint John Human Development Council, a social planning agency, with wide knowledge of our community, to produce the 2006 and 2007 reports. The research undertaken relies in part, on the partnership of the HDC and UNB-Saint John in their 5 year Community University Research Alliance project.

“Greater Saint John’s Vital Signs” displays economic and social data in ten broad categories or Indicator groups. They are: Population, Housing, Work, Belonging & Leadership, Safety, Health, Getting Started, Environment, Learning, Arts and Culture and the Gap Between Rich and Poor. The aim is to ensure that the report has fairly, comprehensively and accurately described our community using the best data available. Maintaining a balance between the presentation of substantive data and a readable format is a goal of the report. It is a quality of life measurement tool for community groups, leaders, businesses and researchers which will be repeated annually and  be posted on the Community Foundation’s and HDC’s web-sites.

This project of Community Foundations of Canada, whose members number one hundred fifty seven community foundations, is being simultaneously launched in eleven Canadian communities on October 2: Toronto, Sudbury, Vancouver, Victoria, the Waterloo Region, Ottawa, Montreal, Medicine Hat, Red Deer, Calgary and Greater Saint John. Greater Saint John is the only Atlantic Canadian community foundation. More are expected to follow, the Fredericton Community Foundation plans to participate in 2008.

Vital Signs Community Foundations are including community grading, wherein groups of community leaders assess and grade progress in the indicator areas. Over the spring and summer, sessions with local community leaders contributed and reviewed data sources, both national and local, and gave their input into a “Star” grading for each data set, forming the basis for Greater Saint John’s “report card”.  In subsequent years, Vital Signs reports may use related data sets in the indicator groups since census data and other statistical information is not produced annually and can be dated by the time it is publicly available. By using year over year comparisons, the Community Foundation expects future reports will offer insights into local trends, successes and challenges and assist in analyzing progress in many aspects of quality of life in our community. It will complement the city’s current initiative, “Vision 2015, Shaping the Vision of Saint John, a Community Conversation”.

Community Foundations of Canada is simultaneously releasing their national Vital Signs Report which will highlight trends in participating communities. Monica Patten, President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Foundations of Canada, states "is it enough just to raise awareness? No. We hope all of the important community players see this as a call to action."

When the Vital Signs report is released tomorrow, it is anticipated that challenges may include poverty, static population growth, and literacy levels. On the positive side, high employment rates, relatively modest housing costs and the substantial successes of some local programs may be reported. The public is welcome to attend the Vital Signs launch at 10am, October 2, at the Foundation’s office in the Business Resource Centre, 40 King Street.