The purpose of defining community vitality is to provide a shared understanding that allows us the ability to identify, measure, and evaluate the dynamics that define the community itself.  After reviewing scholarly work, the UW Extension Community Vitality & Placemaking Team offers the following:

Community Vitality is defined as the community’s collective capacity to respond to change with an enhanced level of participation (process or pursuit of) with aspirations for a healthy and productive community (an outcome or shared vision of success).  Shortly speaking, community vitality is the people‘s pursuit of a shared vision of a place, or CV=P3.

 

Sources

•  Community Vitality Defined from Steve Grabow
• “What is Community Vitality?”, Oregon State University