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As a public foundation whose mission is to improve the local quality of life, we are proud to be part of a national initiative through Community Foundations of Canada called Vital Signs, by which we "take the pulse" of Greater Saint John. By using agreed upon indicators of our quality of life, we measure it and evaluate our progress. We leave it to our readers to interpret the data. We can celebrate our successes and face the challenges which demand our collective efforts.
By taking a "snapshot" of our community, we better understand where we have been, where we are and where we should set our sights. This free document, and its online, more detailed counterpart, is a valuable tool for all sectors of our community, public, business and private.
In 2006, we inaugurated this program with our precursor document "Taking Stock" and in 2007, 2008 and 2009 officially participated as a Vital Signs community foundation. We are pleased to have been able to engage the Saint John Human Development Council to help research and prepare them.
Using the "star" grading process, acknowledged to be subjective, we invited the broader community to be involved again this year. We appreciate the help of hundreds of community members for participating in the online survey. Others helped identify additional sources of data and information against which we can measure ourselves in the ten key indicator groupings.
We thank Community Foundations of Canada for their ongoing support. Through their vision, across Canada, 16 other communities are launching their own versions of Vital Signs simultaneously. The Vital Signs® trademark is used with permission from the Toronto Community Foundation, whose original concept sparked interest in making this a national initiative.
The Greater Saint John Community Foundation has committed to producing Vital Signs for a decade. Our hope is that we can look back over ten years and see measurable improvements, as Greater Saint John's Vital Signs are evaluated.
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