Indicators of Community Well-Being
Latest Community Indicators Report: Power of We: Strengthening Community Connections for Action
The Capital Area community is home to those who have lived here for generations and to those who have just arrived. Our greatest strength is the 448,000 people who live in the cities, towns, and villages and on the farms that make up our community. We are ethnically and racially diverse, and our hospitality to refugees and immigrants is recognized throughout the world.
Our community is a great place to live, work, raise a family, and enjoy the good life. There are many points of historical interest. Our cities, towns, villages, and farms are connected by beautiful rivers: the Grand, Red Cedar, and Looking Glass. There are numerous parks and recreational areas for picnics, walking, and sporting activities throughout our four seasons. We contribute to, and enjoy, the arts. Our community comes together regularly at festivals, concerts, and sporting events, and we have a long tradition of working together to improve our community.
We are also noted for our work ethic and productivity. With pride, we built Oldsmobile cars for many years and continue to make cars in modern, high-tech factories. Michigan State University attracts students from across the state, nation, and world. Our educators and schools provide excellent learning opportunities for our children, and we enjoy easy access to lifetime learning through Lansing Community College. The State of Michigan has made our community its governmental home, and the civil servants who live and work here are considered to be among the most competent and responsive in the country. Our local workforce is contributing to the revolution in technology and life sciences. The strength of our economy and workforce continues to be small businesses and family farms.
While we have a rich heritage, our community and culture change every day. It has always been this way, but with increased technology, this change seems to come more quickly and dramatically than ever before. What do we want the Capital Area Community to be like in the future? Discussions about our future are taking place in every part of our community: how do we grow, how do we protect what we have? Just what is community well-being and quality of life? Where can we do better? Despite the discussions and common concerns, there is sometimes too much noise and too little common language, too much data and too little information. Too often problems and success stories are reviewed in isolation, without a clear reference to the bigger picture and the longer trend.
That's where the Power of We: Strengthening Community Connections for Action comes in. It is designed to improve the quality of the dialogue, and along with that, the quality of life in our community. It is the second report on our community's well-being. This report, and future reports, will tell us if conditions are improving, declining, or staying the same. We hope this report will spark many conversations about how we are doing as a community. And, in the course of the conversations, we hope more people and organizations will be motivated to work together to make our community even better.
An indicator is something we can measure that tells us how we are doing. For example, a fuel gage indicates how far you can drive before refueling. The Power of We Consortium selected a number of key indicators to measure the well-being of our community. These include measures of our intellectual and social development, our economy, our health, our safety, our environment, and our community life. When all of the indicators are considered together, we have a picture of the well-being of our community. When the indicators are measured from year to year, we can know how we are changing. While reading and having conversations about the report, we hope you will want to learn more about our community. And we hope you will be inspired to improve community life and conditions for everyone. The report suggests ways to learn more and how to connect with community improvement initiatives already under way - the dedicated and focused work of hundreds of community members, initiatives, and organizations. We also encourage you to form new associations with neighbors and other community members to address issues highlighted in the report.
For more information about the Power of We Consortium, contact Peggy Roberts at (517) 887-4691.