Social Indicators

What are Social or Community Indicators?

What are social or community indicators? Simply stated, they are information or data that possess two significant characteristics. First, they are a measure (i.e., they quantify) of a social condition of interest. Second, they serve as potential benchmarks to determine the achievement of a result.

Indicators provide concrete and objective information about our communities and serve as a “reality check” against our opinions, beliefs, wishes, or fears. We may think or believe we have a serious adolescent substance abuse problem in our community because of stories in the newspaper or TV, or through conversations with neighbors and friends. Collecting and analyzing indicator data can make us more knowledgeable about the magnitude of a problem, condition, or assets in our community. Indicators can serve as a scientifically accurate basis for understanding and action.

In addition to clarifying issues and providing context to social problems, community planning groups can use indicators in a number of different ways. These include:

Determining the prevalence of a problem in the community;
Identifying patterns of need for service;
Assessing needs for specific types of services;
Forecasting needs for services;
Establishing appropriate program resource levels and differentiating the allocation of resources based on need;
Understanding environmental influence in the community; and
Determining whether intended social change is occurring.

Key to Using the Indicator Guide

The indicators presented in the following sections represent a collection of the most commonly used and widely available quality of life measures for children, families, and communities. While the resource guide presents information on more than 60 different measures, this selection only accounts for a portion of the multitude of measures available for monitoring and assessing community outcomes. Consequently, the resource guide has been designed as a working document, which allows for continued expansion, as community members work to identify new concepts of interest and to generate additional sources of data and information.

To be most productive in the use of the guidebook, we suggest the following steps be taken:

Form the planning group.
Select the indicators of interest.
Determine the focus of the report.
Identify indicator sources.
Collect the information.
Analyze the data.
Prepare a report.

California County Indicators

Community Indicators of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Risk, 2004

The 2004 Community Indicators of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Risk are located at the Community Prevention Institute (CPI) website. CPI is the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs' project to provide Technical Assistance and Training services to community AOD prevention practitioners. Please visit http://www.ca-cpi.org/aindicator_map.htm to access and view the 2004 indicators.

Community Indicators of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Risk, 2001

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