Reimagining Vital Signs
The process
The Victoria Foundation has partnered with the Roy Group on Reimagining Victoria’s Vital Signs. This initiative will shape the future of this important community resource for 2027 and beyond.
For more than 20 years, Victoria’s Vital Signs has measured wellbeing across our region. This process creates an opportunity to reflect on its impact and explore how it can continue to evolve to serve our community.
The reimagining work includes two key elements:
- Engagement with a core group of community leaders
- Input from Victoria Foundation staff and the broader community
Community Engagement Event
On May 12, 2026, we hosted a public engagement session as part of the reimagining process. Community members were invited to help shape the future of Victoria’s Vital Signs.
The energy in the room was inspiring. There were lively discussions, thoughtful questions and valuable insights. Participants contributed through a facilitated exercise called the Future Backwards. Groups worked together to create storyboard style visions of what Victoria’s Vital Signs could become.
Through a series of canvases, participants explored four key stages of the story:
- What got us here
- Current state
- The dream state
- The nightmare state
Participants responded to guided questions at each stage. They wrote their ideas on hex cards and pinned them to large canvases. This created shared visual maps of perspectives, experiences and possible futures that will help inform the reimagining process.
What's next
The next phase of the process will bring together a smaller working group of 16 participants. They will take part in a prototyping exercise in early summer 2026.
The Victoria Foundation plans to share future plans for Victoria’s Vital Signs in October 2026. This update will include the timeline for a 2027 launch.
Celebrating 20 years of measuring wellbeing in Greater Victoria
For 20 years, the Victoria Foundation has produced Victoria’s Vital Signs report. This annual community check-up measures wellbeing in our region, identifies concerns and supports action on issues that are critical to our quality of life. Based on the results from our online citizen survey and local community data, we develop the report to connect philanthropy to community needs and opportunities. Since its 2006 inception, over 43,000 people have participated in the program locally.
Special thank you to the Toronto Foundation for developing and sharing the Vital Signs concept and Community Foundations of Canada for supporting a coordinated national Vital Signs initiative.
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