Wealth Disparity, Health Stats To Be Revealed By Vital Signs

The City of Winkler has pledged $10,000 to kick-start an honest look at the wealth disparity in the community, among other factors.

Vital Signs was a 2012 project by the Winkler Community Foundation that measured a number of statistics like education rates, gap between the rich and poor, community involvement, safety, and health and wellness. The report was used as a marketing tool serving local businesses and non-profits for strategic planning.

Winkler was the first rural community to complete a project of this nature and scale.

Ever since then, Vital Signs Committee member Phillip Vallelly says they've been asked for a follow-up Vital Signs document.

He says by the fall of 2018 they'd like to reach 7,000 homes with a new Vital Signs report, packaged in a user-friendly booklet looking at the significant trends in health, education, culture and the arts.

"We want to provide data to inspire people to take action," he says. "We need to look at the darker side of our community, the tough issues, to face them head on."

Vallelly adds he loves the honesty of hard data, "you can rarely argue with it."

"It's always nice to have a measuring stick," Winkler Mayor Martin Harder says. "There's always things we can improve on, as we saw last time around, and we made some significant changes... we'll see if we're doing better."

The original project cost approximately $25,000.