Overview

Vital signs is a graded report card that evaluates the quality of life in a community and is part of a national initiative led by Community Foundations across Canada.  It's findings are part of a national summary issued annually by Community Foundations of Canada.  

This exciting initiative was launched in Medicine Hat in 2007 and and evaluates the quality of life in Medicine Hat.  It is based on several months of researching statistical data and compiling that data into quality of life indicators, which is then graded by local citizens for our report released each fall.

This community check-up will provide information that measures the health of our city, identifies trends and assigns grades in a number of key areas that are critical to Medicine Hat’s vitality.  Information included in the report will be gathered in cooperation with numerous sources that are researching and collecting data on, and are representative of Medicine Hat.

Issue Areas

The issue areas include the gap between rich and poor, safety, health and wellness, learning, housing, getting started in our community, arts and heritage, culture, environment, work, and belonging and leadership.

Grading

Within each issue area a number of specific indicators will be published.  Each of these indicators will be graded on a simple system of 1 to 5 (one being low and five high).  The grading is completed by local citizens and is a reflection of what they think the raw data says about the quality of life in Medicine Hat.

The goal of Vital Signs is not to create a ‘best of’ list to rank cities, but to help measure our community’s vitality in critical areas which will in turn increase the effectiveness of our grant making, help us inform our donors about issues and opportunities in the community and assist us in making connections between individuals and groups to address those issues.

Publication Date

We have now starting working with community groups in consulting about indicators and the availability of data for the 2010 report.  We will be holding a series of public consultations on quality of life indicators for 2010 in May - location and dates will be announced shortly.  The 2010 report will be launched on October 5, 2010.

Chair:
Les Erickson

Members:
Dr. Shann Snedden
Trish Paton
Karen Blewett
Chris Deering
Dana Couillard  

Mike Christie
Jennifer Thompson
Alison Pfeifer
Melissa Wannamaker
Theresa Hardiker

Other Community Reports

Vital Signs is based on a project of the Toronto Community Foundation and is coordinated nationally by Community Foundations of Canada.  Vital Signs is undertaken by a number of communities from coast to coast.  Their reports can be found here.

The City of Medicine Hat has valuable resources on line relating to stats, services, information and quality of life in Medicine Hat.  For more information please visit the City of Medicine Hat Website at www.medicinehat.ca.

Many thanks to all those who take part in 2009 as a grader.  If you would like to part of the grading process or volunteer for Vital Signs in some other way please contact Mike Christie at 403-527-9038 or email info@mhcf.ca