Is Your City Family Friendly?
HLP City Family Friendly Scorecard:
- Quick
- Low Cost
- Quantitative
- Confirm Strenghts
- Identify Potential Areas of Improvement
HLP has a number of potential solutions to address weaknesss! (See Toolkit)
Scorecard Categories and Contents
Bold = Most Important
- Community
- Family Support Structure
- Marital Status
- Average Household Size
- Change in Child Population
- Balance of Ages
- Population Change
- Living in Poverty
- Average Age
- Education
- K-12 School Quality
- Population with High School Degree
- Local Post High School Educational Opportunities
- Population with Post High School Degree
- Culture
- Places of Worship
- Museums
- Recreation
- Parks
- Rec Centers
- Housing
- Family Housing
- Older Adult Housing
- Vacant Housing
- Employment
- Unemployment Rate
- Median Household Income
- Live and Work in the City
- Cost of Living
- Overall Cost of Living
- Cost to Purchase a House
- Services
- Grocery Stores
- Senior Care
- Child Care Centers
- Transportation
- Walkability
- Work Commute Time
- Commute to Work Method
- Safety
- Crime Index
- Sex Offenders
- Health Care
- Doctors
- Hospitals
- Resources
- Water Quality
- Air Quality
Motivation
Is your city designed well for people of all ages? Cities designed for multiple generations are enjoyable places to live, providing greater social and economic stability. Demographic projections indicate that within the next 20 years, older adults and children will account for approximately 50% of the population.
The goal is to achieve both a family-friendly and eco-friendly city. A family- friendly city includes the full spectrum of ages from the youngest to oldest resident. An eco- friendly city works with the natural system to support more residents over time. These two very important topics are united in the assessment.
The importance of the interdependency of each category in the assessment cannot be over stated. A city experiencing the deterioration of one vital component can cause a demographic shift of families with children relocating to surroundings areas or compromising older adults from living independently.
