Media Clipping – April 24, 2001, The Kentville Advertiser

Well-being survey underway; 2000 residents will be contacted

By Brent Fox

The peace, security and well being enjoyed by Kings County residents will be measured and quantified over the next few months.

Kings County Citizens for Community Development and GPI Atlantic, a non-profit research group, launched the 2001 Kings County Well-being Survey on April 20.

Conducted by five co-ordinators and 16 researchers, the survey starts this week and will continue for two to three months. The project will survey 2,000 Kings County residents' feelings on their safety and security, the environment, food safety, incidence of crime, values, community service, work life quality, social supports, time use, and other socio-economic factors in peace, security and community strength. The 2,000 residents will be selected randomly.

The survey is the result of two years of effort by more than 40 community groups. The Kentville Rotary club, local health boards, Kings CED Agency, National Crime Prevention Centre's Business Action Plan, the Canadian Population Health Initiative, the Rural Secretariat, and Human Resources Development Canada have provided funding for the project.

The current survey was reviewed and verified by Statistics Canada to ensure its validity. The survey results will be used as a benchmark for future measurements. The survey will also be a model for others across the country.

At the launch held at Greenwich, GPI Atlantic director Ron Colman said that the survey is "simple and straight forward,' but also 'very complex." It will attempt to address how a community knows how it is doing. It will detemine "where we're making genuine progress."

Colman said that it would measure if people feel secure in their homes and if their air and water are pure. "There are very many aspects to the quality of life." He explained that "It's complicated because there is no accepted measure for community well-being. We're trying to set it up, and probably for all of Canada." The survey "is literally a first in the country."

The information gathered from the survey "should used to hold politicians' feet to the fire" on a number of issues, Colman said. "It should enter the political realm that way."

Medical health officer Dr. Richard Gould said that "public health is actually very excited about this approach. Health includes more than "the number of hospital beds and physicians." The survey will look at the other factors that impact on health - things such as employment, income, social and physical environment and health behaviour. "Many things that affect health are not in the traditional health sector."

The data "will have a lot of applications for the people who live here," Gould said. The information could "translate into new initiatives and health policy." Currently, community health boards "don't have a lot of the data on community health factors."

Nova Scotia Citizens for Community Development (Kings Chapter) treasurer Richard Hennigar said that "we're definitely developing something here that is unique." He acknowledged, however, that "this is a very challenging exercise."

Hennigar explained that "the survey is not an end in itself, but is a means to an end. It's an exercise that will in itself create change in the community."

He said that "we're trying to get a comprehensive picture of all the things that affect our quality of life, and how to address them."

Project manager Cindy Trudel pointed out that the data would be retained at Dalhousie University.

During the question and answer period, Canon Sid Davies noted that local community health boards "have been floundering because they don't have the right data for wellness."

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