In this edition of Voices, AOHC is very pleased to release a new discussion paper called: Measuring What Matters: How the Canadian Index of Wellbeing can improve quality of life in Ontario.
The paper outlines the ways the index’s framework can be applied at the provincial, regional and local level to improve health and wellbeing. It also offers details about how the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) is already being put into action by municipal governments, funders and a significant number of Ontario’s Community Health Centres.
The paper’s release and the province-wide conversation about the CIW we hope to start, is timely: on April 29, with the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the CIW will be releasing its first Ontario composite index report. Tracking back to 1994, the report will provide baseline data with respect to all eight quality of life domains the CIW tracks. There will also be a single number that will indicate whether quality of life is better or worse overall in Ontario, since 1994.
The information we’re offering in this paper, about how the CIW can be applied, is relevant to a wide range of players: frontline service providers, provincial and professional associations, Local Health Integration Networks, municipalities, the justice system, non-governmental organizations, public servants, political and opinion leaders, and people that are interested in the wellbeing of communities.
We’re inviting each of these audiences to review the paper and consider its central idea: that the CIW can serve as a powerful tool to kick start a more effective community health and wellbeing movement in Ontario.
Download the document pdf here.
#Here are some questions to start the conversation:
- What’s your take on the potential of the CIW to improve health and wellbeing? How might it be applied to the challenges you or your organization are trying to address?
- If you are already applying the CIW framework in your organization or community, and we haven’t mentioned it in our paper, can you share this idea with us? And how would you like to “connect the dots” between what you are doing and other nearby regions or the province as whole?
- Do you have an idea for a new way to use the CIW?
- The CIW framework is constantly evolving and improving. Going forward, how could it be adapted or improved to be applied in different settings?
- What are some of the ways we could all work together to build CIW communities of practice, at local, regional and the provincial level?
- What can be done at the local, regional level to get ready for the release of the forthcoming CIW Ontario composite report?
- Working together, can we use the CIW to build a strong effective community health and wellbeing movement in Ontario?
