Putting well-being at the heart of local policymaking, urban planning and resource allocation is key to helping communities thrive. But well-being is difficult to measure. And few efforts have measured well-being and integrated those results into policies and programs.

Well-being is more than just physical health. It covers all aspects of a person, including the skills and opportunities he or she needs to live a meaningful life. In urban areas, well-being is more than just the health of a community. It also includes residents’ satisfaction, connectedness and ability to reach full potential. (Other dimensions of well-being include community connections, characteristics of place, learning and economic opportunity.)

The city of Santa Monica, California, wanted to incorporate well-being into city planning, policies and programs. But first, it needed a way to measure community well-being.

Project description

One of five cities to win the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ inaugural Mayors Challenge, Santa Monica used its $1,000,000 award to develop and implement the first local Wellbeing Index. RAND researchers, as part of a team of experts that made up The Wellbeing Project, created the Wellbeing Index.

The Wellbeing Project had three phases:

• Define well-being at the community level.

• Measure well-being using administrative data, resident surveys, social media data and more.

• Help address well-being needs by working with community partners and residents to create effective strategies.

The Wellbeing Index aimed to assess well-being in Santa Monica and create a framework for the city to discuss how government, community partners and residents could work together to help the community thrive.

Research questions

• What is the best way to measure community well-being?

• What is the state of Santa Monica residents’ well-being?

• How can officials integrate well-being into city planning?

• How can government, community partners and residents work together to improve well-being?

Key findings

Researchers identified several challenges facing Santa Monica.

• Residents were not as healthy as expected.

• Many residents lacked strong social connections and a sense of neighborhood cohesion.

• Younger residents reported difficulties related to community connection and overall personal outlook or well-being.

• Latino residents reported low well-being.

• Well-being strengths and needs differed by ZIP code.

• Gaps in overall well-being for men in the areas of community, health and learning would benefit from greater attention.

• Housing was an issue for 1 in 5 residents.

• Almost one-third of residents experienced stress some or all of the time.

• Many residents volunteer and vote, but few feel that they have influence in decision-making.

Recommendations

Santa Monica can increase well-being for its residents in the following ways.

• Create community spaces for social engagement, particularly spaces that target young and middle-aged people.

• Develop programs that help neighbors interact.

• Create citywide activities that better use outdoor space.

• Explore opportunities to expand the role of residents in shared decision-making.

• Explore why Latino residents have low levels of well-being. Partner with Latino-serving agencies to create opportunities to improve well-being.

• Create programs to facilitate financial literacy and mitigate financial stress.

• Consider how to increase job-placement opportunities.

“These citywide findings help us tailor policies to those who really need help.” — Lisa Parson, Office of Civic Wellbeing, city of Santa Monica

Impact

The Wellbeing Project helped Santa Monica use growing partnerships between government and nongovernmental organizations. The city also used the index to build on established efforts that track progress in environmental health, open space and land use, economic development and housing, and human dignity.

Creating the Wellbeing Index also helped the city of Santa Monica:

• Establish the current state of well-being of the city and its residents.

• Discover new ways to include city administrative and program data, resident experience data and social media data to better understand well-being.

• Use well-being dimensions to frame its strategic plan and to inform all policy and program decisions.

• Help other cities integrate well-being into their measurement and planning through the dissemination of Santa Monica’s results and outreach efforts.

Anita Chandra is vice president and director of RAND Social and Economic Well-Being, as well as a senior policy researcher for the RAND Corp., where this was first published.