Rural Community Wellbeing Project - Helping Rural Stakeholders Identify Trends and Conditions Impacting their Communities.

GUELPH, ON, – The Rural Ontario Institute (ROI) is excited to announce a new project that builds on ROI’s outstanding work in the field of rural data.

ROI is conducting a pilot test of the Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) new standard: CSA R113:22 Indicators for rural community well-being, services, and quality of life. ROI is working with four rural communities to create a pilot wellbeing dashboard to display selected CSA indicators and related data.

“The Community Wellbeing dashboard will enable stakeholders to understand key measures of rural wellbeing. Communities can use the dashboard to make evidence-based decisions and assess the impact of policy changes, new programs, or ongoing initiatives,” says Danielle Letang, ROI Data Analyst.

The goal of the Community Wellbeing project is for communities to use the dashboard to assess and interpret their wellbeing within their local rural context. The standard includes a set of indicators to identify and measure quality of life and wellbeing in rural communities. The CSA indicators provide a standardized approach to assess wellbeing using readily available data sources, common definitions and methods, and a rural focus. The standard will enable communities to establish a baseline, measure progress over time and compare themselves to similar rural communities across Canada.

“Rural Ontario communities stand to benefit from a practical, applied service that allows benchmarking,” says ROI Executive Director, Ellen Sinclair. “Benchmarking will allow communities to compare progress internally or externally with neighbouring rural communities over time. The project has been made possible through funding support from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.”

“This project offers a significant opportunity to improve the understanding of wellbeing in rural communities and provides an evidence-based approach to take action on important issues,” says Nelson Rogers, Rural Researcher.

The pilot dashboard is expected to be complete by March 2023. Interested communities or organizations wishing to take part in the next phase of the project are encouraged to visit the Rural Community Wellbeing project page for more information and to contact ROI.