Why the Spokane Community Indicator Initiative?
Our Goal: To democratize data
The Community Indicators of Spokane seeks to improve local, public decision-making by providing relevant data in an easily navigable website. The data will offer neutral information for all parties involved in public policy issues.
More specifically, the goals are:
To collect and share a broad spectrum of information to support informed decision-making by individual community members, governmental policy makers, non-governmental organizations, businesses, business organizations, researchers and the press. To measure progress over time of various efforts toward a healthy, vibrant community. To measure the community's progress via relevant benchmarks outside of the County. To enable analysis of these trends. To create a forum for a discussion of the issues underlying the data, either on-line or in person. Our Process: Listening to the community
A community indicators project must receive its inspiration, general direction, and ultimately, validity from the citizens themselves. To launch the project, a series of focus groups were held to help choose the indicators. Best practices and other communities' priority indicators informed the discussion. Each focus group used a simple voting process to select their most significant indicators.
These choices were then compared to a set of guidelines that the Community Indicators working group had established as best practices. Indicators should be:
Comprehensive, or important to large numbers of the community Ideally predictive, or at least outcome-oriented and not focused on inputs Valid measurements of real phenomena, as defined by good science and social science Understandable to a lay audience Benchmarkable to other communities Available repeatedly over time to allow trend analysis Sourced from credible sites Asset-based; that is, describing trends around a positive definition whenever possible. The indicators that emerged from the focus groups met these guidelines with few exceptions. The exceptions have come largely from a lack of data matching the initial indicator definition. In those cases, the Community Indicators working group has searched to find close substitutes. The working group has also taken advantage of experts in the area, many but not all associated with institutions of higher education here.
See the report that describes this process in greater detail: Community Indicators Initiative Report, July 2005
The Working Group
Appropriately, the Spokane Community Indicators Initiative has involved many groups, organizations and institutions. Several of these had independently started to pursue a goal of assembling data to inform their organization's decision-making. When they realized that others were motivated by the same goals, a working group of all organizations quickly coalesced.
These organizations have been:
City of Spokane Community-Minded Enterprise (formerly Health Improvement Partnership) New Priorities Foundation Spokane County United Way Spokane Regional Health District The Lands Council Representatives of these organizations have met frequently for more than two years. In addition to meetings in Spokane, many have attended national and regional conferences on community indicators. The in-kind financial support of these organizations toward the initiative cannot be underestimated.
Due to the abiding interest by its Board of Trustees and administration to be regionally engaged, Eastern Washington University has participated in the process and offered leadership from the staff of the Institute of Public Policy & Economic Analysis. The board and staff of Foundation Northwest, the largest foundation in the Inland Northwest, recognize the value of using comprehensive indicators in their funding decisions. With support from the Northwest Area Foundation, Foundation Northwest has recently awarded a substantial grant to EWU to accelerate the development and refinement of the Community Indicators Initiative.
A Process, not a Product
The Spokane Community Indicators Initiative is as much a process as a product. To provide the most relevant data, we need the reactions of all the site's users. Please take advantage of our feedback box to give us your thoughts and help improve our offering.
In subsequent versions, we expect to provide municipal-level data for some indicators of the two largest cities in Spokane County. With enough resources, we might be able to offer data at the neighborhood level. Over the next few months, we hope to provide a rich set of links to national research and debate around many of the indicators.
Above all, we view this site as a tool for all residents of Spokane County that will only improve over time.
About the site development team
The Center for Digital Media Design and Development
The Center is a collaborative extension of the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering & Design. Development projects for campus and off-campus clients give students the opportunity to apply their skills in a real-world experience. Students are coordinated into on-going design teams based on their skills, and are guided by a formal scope of work, concept development, style sheet, and structured goals, while under faculty supervision.
For more information on how the Center may be able to help you or your business, contact co-directors Dr. Linda Kieffer at (509) 359-7093 or Dr. James Braukmann at (509) 359-2437.
Kandyce Moore, Student Project Manager: Kandy graduated from Eastern Washington University in June, 2006 with a B.A. in Computer Science - MultiMedia. She is currently working on her Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies at EWU.
Bryan Hilmer, Programmer: Although Bryan graduated in June, 2006, he continued to work on this project until shortly after the site's public launch in October. He is now putting his B.A. in Computer Science - MultiMedia to work at AT&T.
Kate Yates, Designer: Currently, Kate is majoring in Visual Communication Design at EWU and will graduate in 2008. In her spare time, Kate directs and coaches the EWU Dance Force dance team.
