Community Indicators Measure Our Quality of Life

by Nicole Milbradt, Sr. Marketing Associate & Events Manager

For years, it was part of United Way of Pierce County’s job to know what the needs of the community were. It is essential to making sure we, the community, are making the most impact. In 2007, United Way began compiling the information and data necessary to not only gauge the needs, but focus our work and monitor our progress.

The Community Indicators web site (www.indicators.uwpc.org) is an online catalog of the information pertinent to life in Pierce County. Foreclosures, poverty rates, unemployment. All of these factors affect the quality of life in our community. For those of us working to resolve the toughest issues in our area and create a good life for all, it is important for us to be aware of the needs and make sure we are working together to make a difference in those areas.

Did you know…

• First quarter 2009 foreclosure filings were up nearly 60% compared to first quarter 2008.
• Fair Market Rent - the estimate of what a family, moving today, can expect to pay for a modest rental home - increases have outpaced the Median Household Income growth by almost 5%.
• Pierce County’s unemployment rate outpaced the state by almost a full percent in March of 2009 – 7,320 people became unemployed in first quarter 2009, compared to 690 in the same period for 2008.

A few minutes clicking around the Community Indicators site would have told you these stories and many more. The Community Indicators site is a comprehensive vault of data but it is also much more. It is a map to identify the community’s toughest issues, how they relate and how we can partner to bring resolution

It is a tool with unlimited capabilities. Do you have a student in school? Use the Community Indicators site as a resource on your next term paper or presentation. Are you the Executive Director of an agency trying to make sure you are working in the areas where our community needs the most help? The Community Indicators site can tell you what those areas are. Are you the owner of a company trying to figure out where to direct your philanthropic efforts? The Community Indicators site can help.

One look at the data will tell you that, in some areas, things are not good. But if knowledge is power, just think of the difference we can make given what we know.

WE WANT TO KNOW…Visit the Community Indicators web site at www.indicators.uwpc.org and tell us what data surprised you.