Community indicators projects are a growing phenomenon around the nation and the world.  Reliable and accurate data is an integral component of informed decision-making, and local decisions require local data.  Community indicators projects are dedicated to the goal of providing accurate demographic, socioeconomic, and wellbeing data for small, local geographic areas.  Dallas Indicators is proud be part of this growing community of local data initiatives.  In May, 2006, Dallas Indicators was accepted into the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP).  NNIP provides a forum for community indicators projects from around the country to exchange ideas, share best practices, learn from each other, and work together to solve common problems. 

In a recent article entitled, "The Use and (Misuses) of Social Indicators: Implications for Public Policy", authors Moore, Brown, and Scarupa of Child Trends, a non-profit non-partisan children's research organization, put forth the argument that social indicators, when used properly, can be valuable tools for policy makers, practitioners, the media, and the general public. These authors suggest that social indicators are widely used because they serve a number of purposes such as:

• informing citizens and policy makers about the circumstances of their society, tracking trends and patterns, and identifying areas of concern, as well as, positive outcomes 
• tracking outcomes that may or may not require policy interventions of some kind
• establishing quantifiable thresholds to be met within a specific time period
• increasing accountability to achieve or improve outcomes
• informing others with regards to the practices of communities and individual programs on an ongoing basis