Introduction

Summary of Project

Recognizing a need for accurate information when addressing community concerns and policy issues, several local governments across the U.S. have developed indicator or benchmark studies to provide them with a source of pertinent information. The Florida Center is currently working on the first stage of a project that will develop a protocol for creating a community index at the neighborhood scale that is firmly rooted in participation from the public, local government representatives, and university faculty. A community index can be a powerful tool to help communities better understand their assets and problem areas. It can be used to assist community groups, non-profits, and government agencies build on local strengths and address concerns.

The Florida Center is leading this project to develop a community index because of its commitment to providing information to citizens, its familiarity with the Tampa Bay area, and its access to data for Hillsborough County. The first phase of this project will take place in the Tampa Bay area and serve as a launch pad for further work to create a statewide community index. As envisioned, the community index would rank neighborhoods in each urban area according to their relative score on a standardized scale measuring the health and vitality of each neighborhood. The index will also identify certain indicators that will be tracked over time.

During Phase I of this project, an initial set of these indicators will be selected and they will focus on the quality of life and physical characteristics associated with an area. They will address broad topics such as economics, transportation, and the built environment. Specific indicators might include housing condition, neighborhood identity, accessibility of services in the community, and distance to employment centers.

The first community input meeting was held November 14, 2001. It was facilitated by the Florida Center in collaboration with Tomorrow Matters! and Hillsborough County Community College. With over fifty people in attendance, several points came out of that meeting:

  1. There is a strong interest by representatives from all stakeholder groups in the community (citizens, government, and business) in the development of a community indicator report and index.
  2. The world is a very large place, even when you are viewing it from the scale of a neighborhood, and it is necessary to do some serious trimming down to get to a manageable list of indicators.
  3. Phase I of this project is the start of a very long process.
  4. The community would like to hold at least one more public forum to allow stakeholders to revisit some of the topics that were not addressed in full at the meeting.

The Florida Center is currently working to coordinate further stakeholder input, as well as facilitate academic input into the process.

We invite you to review the list of topics and indicators. This list has been developed through research into and review of other indicator projects, as well as community feedback. If you have any suggestions for indicators that you feel should be added, or ideas about topics that are especially important to the Tampa Bay area, please fill out the feedback form.

We would like to extend our gratitude the University of South Florida's University Community Initiative for providing the grant funding that has given the Florida Center the seed money necessary to carry out Phase I of this indicator project. We would also like to thank Tomorrow Matters! for their partnership in coordinating the Community Input Meetings.

List of Participants