| Affiliation: | (1) OMNI Research and Training Inc./OMNI Institute, 899 Logan Street, Suite 600, Denver, CO 80203, USA;(2) Larimer County Health and Human Services, 1524 Blue Spruce, Dr., Fort Collins, CO 80524, USA;(3) Education and Human Development and Family Studies Departments, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA |
| Abstract: | In an effort to assess the level of community need and inform responsive resource allocation, Larimer County, Colorado developed a county-level index of well-being. This paper describes the development of that index including the selection of indicators and the methodology for scoring and presenting those indicators. We also present how the local community used the information and describe problems we found while aggregating indicators. Next, we show the results of evaluating our index using Hagerty et al.’s (2001, Social Indicators Research 55, pp. 1–96) 14 criteria for determining validity and usefulness of quality of life indices. The Larimer County index performed above both the “satisfactory” rating and the mean of the 22 indices evaluated using Hagerty et al.’s. We conclude that the Larimer County index is based on a solid approach that will be helpful to local policy makers. |
