Kelowna: room to improve

Photo: Contributed

Kelowna is a vibrant, growing community – which has a lot of room for improvement.

That's the gist of the fourth Vital Signs report prepared by the Central Okanagan Foundation. The report was released Tuesday during a breakfast gathering attended by about 100 people from the community at the Laurel Packinghouse.

"We call it a community snapshot on the vitality of our community," said project coordinator Dr. Kimberly Carter.

The report, said Carter, is guided by the belief that vital and vibrant communities are secure, healthy, smart, creative and connected.

"This year, we narrowed it down to five quality of life issues," said Carter.

"We decided to present some data for each of the issues and complimented it with some qualitative story pieces about a vital project, vital program and vital people in our community that are actively collaborating to address some of the issues we face."

The report offered several statistical findings, but drew no conclusions.

Findings included:

• Security - Overall crime rate is down, but still relatively high
• Health - We are physically active, yet more stressed
• Smart - SD23 children are most vulnerable in physical, emotional and social development
• Creative - Arts and culture employment is on the rise, yet lower than B.C. and Canada.
• Connected - Weakened sense of belonging, yet we give generously

Carter said one of the areas she was not surprised to see centred around mental health.

According to statistics, 69.2 per cent of the Central Okanagan population (12 and over) reported their mental health to excellent or very good. That's in line with provincial numbers and slightly below the national figures.

"It's up (from 2013), but I still don't think that's something to celebrate. The panel of experts today really brought that home too, how mental health really transcends all of our issue areas."

Other information gleaned from the report include crime rates in the Central Okanagan which, while falling the past three years, is still above both the provincial and national rate.

Residents in the Central Okanagan are more physically active that the rest of B.C. and the country. In terms of education, more than 55 per cent of the Kelowna population 15 and over held a university degree, post-secondary certificate or diploma, higher than both the provincial and national numbers.

The report also suggested people in the Central Okanagan have a weakened sense of belonging. Only 65 per cent of people reported a strong or somewhat strong sense of community belonging, down more than 10 per cent from each of the last two reports, and below both the provincial and national averages.

While admitting the report provides only information and not results, Carter hoped people in the community would continue the conversation through an initiative called '100 Dinners'.

People are encouraged to host a dinner to talk about what the report says and how they may be able to make a difference.

"Sometimes, people walk away from reports and say that's a final say on our community."

"We want to flip that and say absolutely not. It's just the beginning. What's missing, let's talk about what's missing."

Click here for more information on 100 Dinners.