The Cochise County Quality of Life Index is a project sponsored by the Cochise Community Foundation, the Cochise College Center for Economic Research and Cochise County . 
 
What is a Quality of Life Index? 
It is a summary of weighted indicators used to: 

• Baseline current conditions
• Benchmark progress over time
• Educate the public
• Develop consensus
• Compare ourselves with others

Why now?
Continued pressure on public budgets challenge government’s ability to address the needs of residents.  A burden shift is taking place as private and non-profit sectors are being engaged in new ways.  The QOL Index can help strengthen these relationships by providing a context for looking at different issues in an integrated way.

How will it be used?
There are several ways in which the Index can benefit Cochise County .

• It can identify those areas that matter most to residents.
• It can expand partnerships across sectors to address shared problems. 
• It can link funding to community priorities.
• It can measure progress over time.
• It adds new value to existing data.

Other indices
While other communities have quality of life indices, they tend to focus on one community attribute such as golf courses, or housing, or economic development.  Portions of the Cochise County QOL Index were modeled on a similar index developed by Boulder County , as part of a two-year public process that was funded by local businesses. Click here to go to their website: www.bococivicforum.org

As of December, 2006, the Cochise County Quality of Life Index is the only comprehensive look at the entire range of components that represent quality of life for most people. Recently, the Arizona Community Foundation in partnership with Arizona State University and the Arizona Department of Commerce began development on a similar index for Maricopa County .