Measure Up

Bridge View- Lady Bird Lake- Austin

Measure our community’s compassion:

Share and report individual and group actions, events, projects, etc. on the Compassion Report Map. The Map provides a platform for us to measure, benchmark, and increase-over-time our collective impact in our community!

Tools to help us measure our compassion-strength:

Tools for individuals to measure their own compassion-strength:

Validated scales from Dr. Kristen Neff (University of Texas at Austin):

Compassion for Others and Self-Compassion Scales

Research-tested scales and quizzes from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley website:

The Greater Good Compassionate Love Quiz, adapted from a scale developed by researchers Susan Sprecher and Beverley Fehr

The Dispositional Positive Emotions Scale for Compassion

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index

The Compassion Games offer a way to challenge yourself and others to increase compassionate action and captures compassion-strength data via the global Compassion Map’s common reporting tool.

Tools for Austin and the Greater Austin community to measure community-wide compassion-strength:

The Compassion Games offer a way for communities to engage people in compassionate action and captures compassion-strength data via the global Compassion Map’s common reporting tool.

Compassion-strength measures and assessment need to be developed further in communities! June 12, 2015, Compassionate Austin gave a presentation to the Board of the Community Advancement Network (CAN) of Austin/Travis County and encouraged the development and inclusion of compassion-strength indicators as part of the CAN Dashboard Report.

An online survey tool (10 questions) for individuals and groups to rate their compassion PRACTICE strength:

Compassion Practice Strength Survey

Both individuals and groups (schools-classes, organizations, businesses, etc.) can use this brief (anonymous) online survey tool.  Reflect on the questions and your responses.  Fill out the survey periodically over time. You can print off the survey and make hard copies to have and use on your own.  If you submit the survey online and want to keep your responses and track your progress over time, you MUST PRINT the survey BEFORE you submit it.  On your printout, your answers will appear in slightly darker highlight. Once submitted online, you will no longer have access to your responses.

*This survey is anonymous. We will gather and post summary data on this website.

An existing measure of Austin’s compassion-strength:

A 2013 Forbes blog article provides a ranking of the 10 most compassionate U.S. cities.

Tools to help us measure our progress and impact in meeting our individual and community needs: 

Tools for individuals to measure their own progress and impact in meeting personal goals:

Set your own goals for improvement in personal well-being (health, peace, and green-living) and measure your progress e.g. set goals for eating a healthier diet, exercising more, learning stress-reduction techniques, meditation, recycling, reducing your carbon footprint, etc.

Tools to help communities identify community needs and measure progress and impact in meeting those needs:

Charter Tool Box– Community Assessment Tool

Community Tool Box (University of Kansas)

The Social Progress Index “offers a rich framework for measuring the multiple dimensions of social progress, benchmarking success, and catalyzing greater human wellbeing.” Currently, the data is available by country. United States data:  “In the Basic Human Needs Dimension, United States performs best on Water and Sanitation and has most opportunity to improve on the Personal Safety component. In the Foundations of Wellbeing Dimension, United States scores highest on Access to Basic Knowledge but lags on the Ecosystem Sustainability component. In the Opportunity Dimension, United States is strongest on Access to Advanced Education and has the most room to improve on Tolerance and Inclusion.”  These measures can be compared with the Austin/Travis County-specific CAN Dashboard data (see below) and adapted (as needed/appropriate) to assess Austin’s social progress at the community level. More specifically, we can advocate for the inclusion of compassion-strength measures in this as well as the Austin-specific data sets.

Existing measures that identify community needs in Austin and the Greater Austin area and assess our progress and impact in meeting those needs:

Community Advancement Network (CAN)– the annual CAN Dashboard Report– extensive data

Imagine Austin–  Imagine Austin has been contacted by more than 100 cities, counties, governments, and planning and engagement organizations across the globe. If you would like to interact with Imagine Austin or share your research or experience, Contact Imagine Austin Team.  Imagine Austin has won numerous awards and is recognized as a best practice in civic engagement, innovation, and comprehensive community planning.

Austin Office of Sustainability

Together We Thrive- Austin-Travis County Community Health Plan

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