About | London Vital Signs

Connecting People Who Care to Causes That Matter

Although our economy is improving, it’s too early to see change. When you’re the most marginalized, you’re first to need help but the last to recover.

Martha Powell

When the milk is running low, most of us just add it to the grocery list and buy more. But for many Londoners, it’s not that easy. As a volunteer on the board at the Daily Bread Food Bank and the Fellowship Centre, Andra O’Neill says she is struck by how many two-income families have been in to get help this year.

Although our economy is improving, it’s too early to see change. When you’re the most marginalized, you’re first to need help but the last to recover.

Each day, over 200 Londoners drop into the Fellowship Centre for a hot lunch, a cup of coffee and maybe a game of cards with friends. Many also frequent the food bank for a three-day emergency supply of food. Both urgent need services are run out of St. Paul’s Cathedral on Richmond Street.

People are devastated to have to go to a food bank. So the moment they step inside, the volunteers go all out to make them feel welcome. It takes courage to get help.

For Andra and many volunteers like her, it’s not about doing your “good deed” for the day. It’s about listening to someone’s story and being inspired to make your community a better place.

It’s been a tough two years since our last report in 2008. The economic downturn caused unemployment like we’ve never seen before, along with higher poverty and hopelessness. The most vulnerable in our community are reeling and average families have felt the pressure too.

Andra is just one of the many people you’ll meet in Vital Signs ® 2010 report who make a difference. As you’ll see from the stories ahead, a new spirit of generosity, compassion and yes, hope, is seeing us through. Not just from our richest citizens but from people who live modest lives too. Giving doesn’t have a demographic. Anyone can do it, from the person who has a kind word for a stranger to the wealthy businessperson with a million dollars.
Connecting people who care with causes that matter was the impetus for publishing London’s first Vital Signs ® two years ago, and it continues to be our reason for publishing the report now.

A key challenge for philanthropy is sorting through competing priorities, identifying opportunities and creating space for deeper conversations and solutions. We trust that Vital Signs will continue to strengthen our role as a grant-maker and encourage our community and donors to make a difference.

Perhaps, most importantly, Vital Signs ® will serve as a beacon for the people of London and Middlesex County, drawing attention to the issues we must address to ensure the vitality of our community.

You’ll meet many of our community champions here. Their passion and enthusiasm is evident in these pages: in their projects, data, and great ideas to make London a stronger, more vital community.

As you read this report, I encourage you to reflect on how you -- as a member of this community -- feel we are doing in each area, how we can improve and how you might contribute to make a difference.

Visit our website at www.londonvitalsigns.ca and let us know your thoughts. Feel free to share your ideas and initiatives too -- there’s so much going on, we can’t begin to get it all into this report. You’ll also find more stories, more in-depth data and interesting video on the website.

Vital Signs ® is a call to become more informed about the health and wellbeing of our vibrant community. Because community truly means each and every one of us.

About Vital Signs®

Vital Signs ® is an annual check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our communities and identifies significant trends in a range of areas critical to quality of life. Vital Signs ® is coordinated nationally by Community Foundations of Canada.

Methodology: Indicator Selection

Indicators for each of the six key areas were selected on the basis of:
• Availability of data
• Ease and cost of data collection
• Reputable and reliable data source
• Currency of data
• Community interest
• Data that will be updated regularly for future trending
• A three-year cycle for core indicators as agreed upon by all community foundations participating in Vital Signs

The Vital Signs ® trademark is used with permission from Community Foundations of Canada.

Thank You

London’s Vital Signs ® report would not be a reality without the working support and contributions from countless individuals, organizations and businesses from across the community. We would like to offer our sincere gratitude to all for making London’s Vital Signs ® 2010 a success. Special thanks to Donna Bourne for her leadership on this project.

Contributors

Joan Atchison, London Police Services
Sally Bennett, Middlesex County
Wilma De Rond, London District Catholic School Board
Evelyn Crosse, Middlesex-London Health Unit
Victoria Esses, The University of Western Ontario
Ross Fair, City of London
Jane Fitzgerald, Children’s Aid Society
Laverne Foran, Children’s Aid Society
Chris Harrington, Upper Thames River Conservation Authority
Theresa Hollingsworth, Upper Thames River Conservation Authority
Ann Hutchison, The University of Western Ontario
Gary Kay, University of Guelph
Steve Killip, Thames Valley District School Board
Anne Langille, WIL Employment Connections
Alan Leschied, The University of Western Ontario
Lynne Livingstone, City of London
Kelly McManus, United Way of London & Middlesex
Christina Nurse, London Public Library
Steve Pellarin, Small Business Centre
Jim Reffle, Middlesex London
Health Unit
Jeff Robinson, Thames Valley District School Board
Howard Rundle, Fanshawe College
Chris Smart, The University of Western Ontario
Carrie Smith, Children’s Aid Society
John-Paul Sousa, City of London
Terry Spencer, London District Catholic School Board
Jay Stanford, City of London
Angela Sutton, Fanshawe College
Bill Tucker, Thames Valley District School Board
Peter White, London Economic Development Corporation
Jeff Wright, Fanshawe College
Kate Young, Thames Valley District School Board
Gerda Zonruiter, City of London

London Community Foundation Board

Richard M. Ivey, Honorary Director
Lorraine Ivey Shuttleworth
Honorary Director
John Nicholson, Chair
Jeannette Eberhard, Past Chair
Antony D. (Tony) Abbott
Tima Bansal
Donna Bourne
Kate Brown
Peter Dillon
Geno Francolini
Hans Jonckheere
Dr. Jack Jung
Peter Kryworuk
Patrick O’Neill
Franco Paron
Gerry Wheaton
Fraser Wilson

London Community Foundation Advisory Council

Bill Brady
Ann Lowery
Len Macdougall
Tom Mitchell
Barrie Neal
Judith Rodger
Robert Siskind
Diane Y. Stewart
Janet Stewart
Cal Stiller
Gordon Thompson
Lucille Wolf
Dr. M. Lee Myers

Corporate Supporters

Brian Hillier Photography
Echidna Solutions Corp
Lashbrook Marketing & Public Relations
London Free Press

About London Community Foundation

London Community Foundation is an independent charitable organization created by and for the people of this city.

The role of a community foundation is three-fold: to manage the funds entrusted to us by donors; to make grants to local charities that are making a difference; and to provide leadership in community building and leadership.

Since 1979, London Community Foundation has been working to ensure prosperity across generations who choose to make a life in London and Middlesex County by pooling the charitable gifts of many donors into a permanent, income-earning endowment.

Thanks to the generosity of donors past and present and a responsible investment strategy, your community endowment is now valued at over $42 million. Each year, grants from the earnings of these funds are used to support a broad variety of charitable initiatives from health, education and social services to arts, culture and the environment.

We are proud to say that a gift of any amount creates a lasting legacy that not only addresses the needs of today, but the needs of our community tomorrow.

London’s Vital Signs Report is used as a blueprint in developing our community granting priorities.

Responding to the Market Downturn

As this report will reflect in many areas, the impact of the recent economic downturn was felt across all aspects of our community, our province and our country.

A community foundation’s role is to serve our communities as a resource and partner. We strive to be flexible and responsive to issues facing our communities. Our granting principles continued to guide us through these difficult times.

With limited funds available for granting, we convened those non-profits and front line agencies across the community to ask them “how is the economy impacting your work, what are you seeing and hearing from those you serve, and most importantly, how can we help?”

We listened and responded by implementing an Urgent Needs Granting program designed to provide the most basic of human needs to those most impacted. We created partnerships with other funders and encouraged and supported collaboration at all levels across the city.

About Community Foundations of Canada

Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) is the national membership organization for Canada’s Community Foundations. Together, we are the Canadian movement for community vitality, represented by 174 members from coast to coast. CFC was established in 1992 to connect and support this growing network of local foundations.

We believe in:

• Philanthropy, especially through community foundations, as a powerful catalyst for strengthening communities in Canada and around the world
• Visionary leadership that welcomes innovative approaches, builds on strengths, models inclusiveness and takes appropriate risks
• Collaborative relationships - among members, volunteers, staff and other organizations - that respect independence and diversity, and that foster dialogue and sharing of ideas and experiences
• Open and accountable practices that reflect the highest possible standards of performance as a membership association and as a leader in promoting philanthropy.

Communities Publishing Vital Signs in 2010

Community Foundation for Kingston and Area
Community Foundation of Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta
Community Foundation of Nova Scotia - Lunenburg County
Community Foundation of Ottawa
Hamilton Community Foundation
La Fondation du Grand Montreal/The Foundation of Greater Montreal
London Community Foundation
Red Deer and District Community Foundation
Sudbury Community Foundation
The Calgary Foundation
The Greater Saint John Community Foundation
Toronto Community Foundation
Vancouver Foundation
Victoria Foundation
Waterloo Region - Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation and the Cambridge and North Dumfries Community Foundation

About London’s Vital Signs® Report

Vital Signs serves as a check-up on the vitality of London and provides a snapshot of the positive and negative trends in areas important to our quality of life.

The report is compiled from recent statistics and studies that look at six different, and yet interconnected, issue areas that are critical to the well being of our city and its residents: Getting Started in our Community, Belonging and Leadership, Learning, Work, Environment and Gap Between Rich and Poor. This study deepens our community knowledge and is a valuable tool for residents, leaders and elected officials who develop the new ideas required to build a stronger London.

London Community Foundation has placed the emphasis of the report on the City of London. In some instances, the data presented represents the City of London and Middlesex County where possible. Conversely, some data estimates in the report use the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) that includes the City of London along with the townships of Central Elgin, Southwold and Strathroy-Caradoc and surrounding areas of Middlesex and Thames Centres (Statistics Canada definition, 2001). It is important to note the data source when reading through the report for clarity on the geographical area.

Research Sources

Canadian Community Health Survey, Statistics Canada
Centre for Lifelong Learning
Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex
Children and Youth Network
City of London
Composite Learning Index
Elections Canada; City of London Elections Office
Fanshawe College, Research and Institutional Planning Office
Households and the Environment Survey 2007
London District Catholic School Board
London Economic Development Corporation
London Food Bank
Middlesex London Heath Unit
OEYC Data Analysis Coordinators, Early Development Instrument
Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative
Statistics Canada
The University of Western Ontario
Thames Valley District School Board Annual Report 2009

Note: London CMA (Census Metropolitan Area) includes the City of London along with the townships of Central Elgin, Southwold and Strathroy-Caradoc and surrounding areas of Middlesex and Thames Centres.