RECONNECTING COMMUNITIES

LOCAL VITAL SIGNS REFLECTIONS The Guelph Community Foundation’s 2023 Vital Signs Report showed how all the different themes explored came back to well-being. “Everyone in our community should have access to the right supports and resources to be resilient and maintain their well-being through difficult or stressful times. But challenges and inequities throughout our community mean that not everyone does. We all do better— when we all do better.” Read their full Vital Signs report.

WHAT’S IMPACTING WELL-BEING? • Financial Security and Health: People with lower financial security and poorer physical and mental health have a lower well-being score. • Family Structure: Couples with children have a higher well-being score (7.0) than single parents (5.8). • Age: As people get older, well-being goes up. People aged 18 to 29 have a score of 6.1, and those 65 or older have a score of 7.0. • Gender: People who identify as male have a higher well-being score (6.6) than people who identify as female (6.2). Young women have the lowest well-being score (5.9). The 2020 National Vital Signs Report on Gender Equality in Canada dives further into how well-being is gendered. The data did not have a sufficient sampling of people who are non-gender binary to provide a score, and this remains an area for further research. • Experiences of Discrimination: The more people have experienced discrimination, the lower their well-being score.

Racialized people, people who identify as female, young people, people living with a disability, people who practice a non-Christian religion, and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community are more likely to experience discrimination. In this national survey, people were asked about the type of discrimination they experienced. For the purposes of this survey, this was defined to include being treated with less courtesy and respect, receiving poorer customer service than others, being treated as if you are unintelligent, threatening or dishonest without reason, being insulted or called names and being threatened, harassed or abused. The more a person has experienced discrimination, the lower the well-being score. Those who have experienced no discrimination have a higher than average well-being score (7.4), and those who have had the most frequent discrimination have a significantly lower score (5.7). 37

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