Benchmarks and Indicators

Centre for Community Enterprise

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INTRODUCTION

For almost 25 years the Centre for Community Enterprise (CCE) has worked across Canada to strengthen local economies. Like an increasing number of other community economic development (CED) organizations across North America, we have learned a lot about what "works." We have seen how organized local capacity can increase local employment, civic values, and community vitality. As in many other fields, there have been real breakthroughs in specific pilots or demonstrations - but they have never been scaled up.

We have been asking ourselves "why?" Huge obstacles within our systems of governance, public and private, block the scaling up of local success. Fragmented mandates, stovepipe delivery systems, turf protection - these system bottlenecks contribute to what we see as growing cynicism, civic disengagement, and distrust in our society.

In short, we sense an erosion of social capital in our communities and institutions. We believe that over time the economic and social implication of such erosion is negative. We believe we must contribute to steps that have a potential for reversing it.

The Oregon Benchmarks, which have operated for over a decade south of the line, demonstrate one powerful way to do so. CCE conducted significant research into the Oregon Benchmarks in the autumn of 2000. What we encountered was a systematic framework that is succeeding as a guide to meaningful change in Oregonian society.

At the heart of the Oregon Benchmarks is a 20-year strategic vision for the economic, social, and environmental future of the state. This vision is made specific through the setting of meaningful targets and measures that focus action and guide the allocation of resources. These targets (outcomes) and measures (indicators) have evolved from the input of a broad cross-section of Oregonians. The clarity of these targets and measures, and their ability to reveal progress or decline, are facilitating the building of strategies and partnerships within and between a vast range of sectors and interests.

Moreover, it appears that measuring progress over time is leading to real learning in Oregon. A feedback loop is developing that is having a huge impact on government and private decisions.

The result is, in our opinion, a more cohesive and collaborative society that is increasing its stock of social capital. We in B.C. have a lot to learn from this incredible innovation of our southern neighbour.

Sharing our interest in the Oregon Benchmarks and their applicability in B.C. is the province's Ministry of Community Development, Cooperatives and Volunteers. It helped underwrite some of the costs associated with our work last fall and now is assisting us with making the results known to people in B.C.

Our goals are two fold. Until summer 2001, we wish to engage a broad cross-section of leaders from various sectors of B.C. society in a reflection and dialogue about the relevance of the Oregon Benchmarks specifically, and about results-based governance in general. By the fall of 2001, we would like a non-partisan, broadly-based group of B.C. citizens willing, ready, and able to press the B.C. government to use an adaptation of the Oregon Benchmarks to move towards a more results-based approach to governance.

Interested? Download the documents on this page for further information and e-mail us at the Centre for Community Enterprise.

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Copyright © 2001 Centre for Community Enterprise. All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce any of these materials in whole or in part, in print or electronically, must first be obtained from the copyright holder.

BENCHMARKS & INDICATORS DOCUMENTATION

DEVELOPING CIVIC INDICATORS & COMMUNITY ACCOUNTING IN CANADA

Indicator initiatives are mushrooming across North America. This report by Paul Reed, senior social scientist for Statistics Canada and associate director of the Carleton Centre for Applied Social Research, explains why this is happening and identifies the critical ingredients for making these efforts more effective and relevant. Moreover, it moves us from thinking just about civic indicators to actually contemplating a more systematic approach to designing community accounts. Of crucial importance to people researching and using indicators to create more strategic community and societal information, Reed defines more than 170 indicators and defines how accessible this data is (or isn't) in the Canadian context for communities with populations of 25,000 or greater. This is a key contribution to the development of this field in Canada and beyond.

Download Developing Civic Indicators, Part 1
Download Developing Civic Indicators, Part 2
Download Developing Civic Indicators Tables. (You will require Microsoft Excel to view these spreadsheets.)

SOURCES AND RESOURCES FOR COMMUNITY INFORMATION

An extensive bibliography of the literature in community information and indicators compiled by Warren Dow, Ph.D.

Download Sources and Resources

THE OREGON BENCHMARKS

Now into its twelfth year, Oregon's state-wide planning process is proving to be a way for people and organizations from a range of sectors and interests to collaborate on initiatives, and then objectively assess their economic, social, and environmental effects. Could we use the same process in British Columbia?

Download The Oregon Benchmarks

TILLAMOOK COUNTY, OREGON

Like much of coastal B.C., Tillamook County is characterized by breath-taking natural beauty and big problems. Development pressures, declining natural resources, and a shift to a lower wage service economy are presenting some serious challenges to local residents. They also are determined to maintain and enhance Tillamook County's unique social, economic, and environmental character. How the Oregon Benchmarks have invigorated and supported this determination is the subject of this case study.

Download Tillamook County, Oregon

OREGON BENCHMARKS: CHANGING SYSTEMS BY STEALTH

The original research report on the Benchmarks completed by the Centre for Community Enterprise in October 2000.

Download Oregon Benchmarks: Changing Systems by Stealth

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT, DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS, & ABORIGINAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

It is essential that we in Canada take a more results-based approach to Aboriginal economic development. It will create a strategic level of innovation that promotes learning, flexibility, and responsible use of resources as well as improving overall accountability and effectiveness. In fact, applications of frameworks of results, indicators, and performance measures, although at an early stage of evolution, are already showing real promise. This provocative research report, completed by the Centre for Community Enterprise for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, tracks the need for such an approach and its emergence to date, and just how to extend and accelerate its development system-wide.

Download Performance Measurement (main text)

Download Appendix 1: Applying CED Best Practice to a Performance Framework

Download Appendix 2: Indicator Research

Download Appendix 3: The Development Wheel

Download Appendix 4: CED in the High Arctic

Download Appendix 5: The Oregon Benchmarks

Download Appendix 6: The Community Resilience Manual

Download Appendix 7: Facing Facts

Thanks for your interest! Please forward additional comments and queries to:

Centre for Community Enterprise
PO Box 1161
Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M1
(tel/fax) 250-723-1139
E-mail