Fort St. John Community Indicators Program
The City of Fort St. John recently adopted a CIP with the Community Development Institute (CDI). This is a crucial first step as the CDI is both a “neutral convener” and “backbone organization” that can provide overall direction, discussion venues, and reliable data collection and analysis (Wood 2016). Having the CDI plan and implement the CIP for Fort St. John will encourage broader citizen and stakeholder engagement, as the CIP will be perceived as neutral and non-partisan.
Community indicators are used to measure and track the social, economic, and environmental issues that are significant to citizens living in a particular geographic area. Community Indicator Programs (CIPs) fulfill multiple roles as:
• democratic tools that engage citizens through dialogue and debate about community values, needs, and priorities;
• reporting tools that track and communicate progress towards community goals; and
• policy tools that identify local issues and inform evidence-based policy making (Dluhy and Swartz 2006; Cox et al. 2010).
Such evidence-based information is also often needed for developing programs and plans, setting priorities, pursuing senior government funding and industry contribution agreements, as well as to support participation in environmental impact assessment processes.
