On the morning of December 6, 1917, a munitions ship collided with another ship in the Halifax Harbour and caught on fire. As people hurried to evacuate, a railway dispatcher named P. Vincent Coleman paused to send a telegraph message to an incoming train, warning them of the danger. Coleman’s actions saved 300 lives but cost his own, one of thousands of people who were killed, injured or left homeless by the explosion of the ship and the tsunami and shockwave that followed. In the days that followed, help poured in from around the world, but particularly from across the region.

Nearly a hundred years later, Haligonians continue to offer support to people in need. In 2004, Nova Scotia’s Foundation for Heritage and the Arts broadened its mandate to address all areas of social concern, evolving into the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia (CFNS). This emerging centre for philanthropy has the goal of building community through endowment building, strategic grant making and community leadership. Since its inception, the foundation has developed more than 30 endowment funds, supporting a broad range of interests across the province, with a total asset base exceeding $1.5 million.

Today the CFNS releases their fourth Vital Signs report, an annual check up that measures the vitality of communities, gathering and publishing data on social and economic trends and making recommendations in critical areas. This report is the first to focus on the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), the largest municipal region in Atlantic Canada and economic driver of the province of Nova Scotia. While the report examines 12 different but interconnected issue areas that are critical to the well being of the HRM and its residents, we highlight three key areas here.

An aging population

Home to more than 408,000 people, Halifax comprises 43.2% of the population of Nova Scotia. As the region is also is also home to six universities, it is unexpected to note that the population of Halifax is actually aging: with a median age increasing from 39.0 to 39.9 in the past five years. School enrollments have dropped an average of 1.4% each year since 2001-2002 while the proportion of youth under 15 years in the HRM declined from 18.5% of the population in 2000 to 14.6% in 2011, below the national average of 16.4%. At the other end of the spectrum, during the same time period, the region’s proportion of seniors grew at an annual average rate of 1.8%, which outpaced the national rate of 1.3%, although it should be noted that Halifax’s population of seniors is still proportionally lower than the national average.

Why is it that the presence of so many universities does not lower Halifax’s median age? The answer may be found in a survey of HRM residents who note that the top spending priority of the government to improve economic prosperity needs to be attracting and retaining young professionals. This emphasis suggests a problem in retaining those who may come to study at Halifax’s universities and then disperse after graduation.

This creeping up of age in the general population may have a variety of social effects on the region: The fact that, in 2010, a higher than national average percentage (56.5%) of the HRM’s population engaged in unpaid volunteer activities as part of a group or organization, up from 45.3% in 2007, may be accounted for by an aging population. An older population may also account for some of the decline in child poverty rates – which peaked in 2003 at an appalling 24.6% and by 2011 had dropped to 10.1%, the second lowest rate in a decade. During that same period, the poverty rate among the elderly had increased, doubling since 2005 to a present rate of 7.8%. Social programs in the HRM need to take into account an aging population and declining numbers of children in the region.

Increase in violent crime

While Halifax’s general crime rate has declined significantly over the last 13 years – it is now one-third less than it was at its peak in 2004 – and its Overall Crime Severity Index is also at the lowest point in 13 years, violent crime is a significant concern in Halifax. While 91% of Haligonians report being satisfied with their personal safety in 2009, the fact is that Halifax has the second highest murder rate among Canadian metropolitan areas, with 18 murders in 2011 – more than double both the provincial and national average. Attempted murder in Halifax also occurred in 2011 at rates far exceeding the national average. Weapons violations have been on the rise and are more than double the national average in Halifax.

The CFNS recently gave a grant to support a joint program offered by the Elizabeth Fry Society and Clean Nova Scotia to help reintegrate female offenders into the community following the completion of their prison terms. The program included lessons on how to shop, prepare and preserve food economically, and was enthusiastically received by participants. The program sought to encourage a sense of community among participants who could share knowledge and work together.

Other programs such as scholarships for at-risk youth address this disturbing trend.

Frequent use of libraries

Library use is in decline across the province, with many libraries, including some in schools, being forced to close. In Halifax, however, the reverse is true. In 2010, more than two million visits were made in person to Halifax public libraries – with someone walking into a library in Halifax every minute that the libraries were open. Items circulated were up nearly a third from 2000 and almost 19,000 new borrowers registered for a library card in 2010-2011, bringing the total percentage of the population of HRM who have a library card to 45.1%.

The most-frequented library is in a neighbourhood with a relatively high immigrant population, suggesting that libraries are more than repositories of books, they are becoming community centres, offering a wide variety of community services: in 2011, 3,686 adults attended 418 literacy programs; 8,509 adults attended 597 English language learning classes; 4,815 youth attended 513 reading development programs; and, 93,119 children, parents and caregivers visited the library for a variety of other programs.

Excellent library use also reflects Halifax’s interest in the arts and recreation – Haligonians spend a greater percentage of their household budget on recreation than do most Canadians, and have higher percentages that spend money annually on reading (78.6%), performing arts (43.9%) and museums (37%).

A participant in Halifax’s Vital Signs Youth Survey said, “There should be more money invested into public libraries where art, theatre, literature, dance, films, live music, festivals, sustainable living, recycling and environmental programs, activist groups, voting, youth outreach and youth engagement happen all under one roof. I can’t say enough how much the libraries do for our communities.”

In conclusion

The HRM 2012 Vital Signs report demonstrates many ways in which the Halifax metropolitan area is thriving, but also shows room for improvement and makes unusual observations (while Halifax is ranked as the number one city in the world for cleanest air, deaths from respiratory diseases and lung cancer are far higher than Canadian averages).

Allison Kouzovnikov, executive director of the Community Foundation of Nova Scotia, looks forward to the response to this year’s Vital Signs report. “Last year, after we released our Vital Signs report for the entire province, we were inundated with people wanting to know more about the challenges and opportunities at their local community level. Halifax was the next logical area to focus on, especially given the pending economic boom which will flow from a major ship-building contract that was recently awarded. It is imperative that we create a broad understanding of what needs and opportunities exist in our community today so that we can ensure that all are able to benefit from what is to come in the future. In this way, Vital Signs is a great tool to help build stronger, smarter and more caring communities.”

Susan Fish is a writer/editor at Storywell, a company that helps individuals and organization tell their story well. She has written for the nonprofit sector for almost two decades and loves a good story.

Photos (from top) via Clean Nova Scotia. All photos used with permission.

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