A brief description
Pelican Island Audubon Society, with the help of more than 20 advisors from all parts of the county and community, have started an innovative community-based process to survey and measure ‘quality of life’ indicators to guide the county towards an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable future.
This project aims to define a community vision, set goals and measure progress in each of these three dimensions of life in Indian River County. We will survey community priorities of quality of life values and then measure them to establish a baseline. Armed with reliable indicator information this is more likely to lead to having those values considered when leaders make community decisions.
This project aims to
- Define a community vision for the future
- Select measurable indicators to measure progress
- Survey community priorities of quality of life values
- Measure them to establish a baseline of reliable data
- Repeat the measurements or data gathering periodically
- This is more likely to lead to having those values put forward when leaders make community decisions.
Major steps in this project:
1. We have asked leaders of key interest groups to serve in an advisory capacity. So far we have more than 20 partner commitments. (See link to Advisors list) We have met individually and collectively with the advisors.
2. We have developed a preliminary list of ‘quality of life’ indicator topics in discussion with advisors, key leaders and with focus groups.
3. We have held eight community ‘indicator work groups’ or focus group meetings to identify values and discuss indicator topics. We are open to planning more...if a section of the community wants to be heard, we’d be glad to come to hold a working group meeting with them.
4. Based on these discussions we are now developing a detailed survey based on these indicator topics and we will poll the county population to establish priorities.
5. In due course we will gather data to measure these particular environmental, social and economic indicators to identify what our citizens most value as important to their quality of life...and present the results to community leaders.
We will ask community leaders for a commitment, based on the survey results,
- to use the results to hold community planning meetings on how best to use the priorities to improve the community’s quality of life. Based on the survey results of the quality of life indicators, we will be able to suggest additional steps for the community to take in order to improve the community’s quality of life.
- to maintain a website where suggestions for citizens to provide input-solutions to improving the quality of life would encourage citizen participation and volunteerism
- to proceed to find and provide resources to fulfill the goals.
- to regularly update the indicator measurements to serve as a bell weather toward the community vision.
- In addition, it would be useful to take a random sample survey to identify how citizens see how the community is doing...what is judged to be our current quality of life...and individually their opinion about how their own situation is...their economic, social, environmental status, and general happiness.