Children in poverty will be focus of new Vancouver ‘data dashboard’
Children who live below the poverty line in Vancouver are one of the key focus areas of a new open data dashboard tracking the city’s progress against health and wellbeing indicators.
A total of 23 indicators form the basis for the dashboard, that feeds into Vancouver’s work to build – in the city’s words – ‘equitable, sustainable and resilient communities’.
The Partnership for Healthy Cities, a global network of cities committed to saving lives by preventing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries, is providing technical and financial support for the dashboard. It has also been expanded to provide immediate assistance in the urban response to COVID-19 .
It is also being supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with the World Health Organization and the public health organisation Vital Strategies.
‘Understand the challenges our communities are facing’
The city says that examples of datasets featured in the dashboard include the number of children living in families below Canada’s official poverty line, the number of households spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, and the proportion of adults who have a sense of community belonging.
Kennedy Stewart, Mayor of Vancouver, said: “Vancouver is proud to be part of a network of forward-thinking cities that are taking new approaches to better understand the challenges that our communities and residents are facing,” said Mayor Kennedy Stewart. “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Partnership for Healthy Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies for enabling us to develop this dashboard which will ensure our vital work around equity, poverty reduction, and COVID-recovery is rooted in data.”
Ariella Rojhani, Director of the Partnership for Healthy Cities, added: “Vancouver’s data-driven approach embraces the fact that good health and wellbeing are the product of more than just access to health care. We applaud the City for using these data to inform future policy decisions, and for the transparency demonstrated.”
