The Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen is encouraging Osoyoos residents to participate in its 2015 Vital Signs Survey.
The online survey is a key component of the organization’s bi-annual Vital Signs Report, which combines feedback from local residents with data from Statistics Canada in an effort to provide unique insight into the region’s most important issues.
Sarah Trudeau is the foundation’s regional development coordinator. She says that report is “basically like a check up on the health of the community.”
The online survey asks participants to give feedback on their experience in 11 different areas such as work, health, housing and the gap between rich and poor. The foundation then takes those responses and uses them to grade the region (from A+ to F) in each of the categories.
This is the third time the foundation has conducted the survey, and the second it has been open to the entire Okanagan Similkameen region.
The last time the organization conducted the survey, in 2013, 684 people answered it, 66 of whom were from Osoyoos.
For the most part the region scored well in all of the categories. The exceptions were the “work” and “rich/poor gap” categories, which were graded D+.
Since the survey is voluntary and online, it’s not truly representative, however Trudeau said it still provides important information for municipalities, community organizations and private citizens because of the unique way community feedback is paired with statistical data.
“That’s sort of what is interesting about Vital Signs, is how you get to see what the community feels [set against] what Statistics Canada says.”
She used the example of the “safety” category, where people have indicated they don’t feel safe in their community despite the fact that statistics reveal criminal activity is limited.
“I think with community feedback it just gives people the ability to voice their opinion, to voice how they’re feeling.
“It’s great to just fill out a survey and check a few answers, but we really give people the opportunity to tell us exactly how they’re feeling, and where [they] think things need to change.”
The Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen uses information from the Vital Signs report to help decide how to distribute its yearly grant funding. For example, Trudeau said that after the report indicated that low-income families sometimes have trouble accessing appropriate medical care, the foundation put money towards a free dental clinic.
The foundation also requires anyone applying for one of its grants to demonstrate why they need the money based on the needs identified in the report. That way, she said, “they’re not just applying because they need money, they’re applying because they saw in vital signs an issue they need to work towards.”
Trudeau pointed out that the more people who fill out the survey, the more useful it is and the more it can be relied on to provide community leaders with insight into the region. She urged residents of the Okanagan Similkameen to take a few minutes and fill it out.
To take the survey visit www.cfso.net. It will remain open until Aug. 31, when the foundation will take it offline and begin organizing the data into the Vital Signs Report. That report will be available Oct. 1.
TREVOR NICHOLS
Special to the Times
