You can use the Happiness Index as a tool of transformation for your life, your family, your neighborhood, community, town or city. Contact info@happycounts.org to get a custom Happiness Index link to gather data for a group.
The Happiness Policy Handbook gives you tools and resources in hand.
There is nothing else out there like it.
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Based on years of practical experience and visionary leadership.
Includes contributions from
Ed Diener Martine Durand Carol Graham John Helliwell & many others |
The care of human life and happiness - and not their destruction - is the first and only object of government. - Thomas Jefferson
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Why Conduct a Happiness Project?
A few reasons;
🌍To give people a way to measure happiness.
🌏To raise awareness about what really matters in life.
🌎To change the conversation about how we define happiness.
🌍To expand the dialogue about the purpose of government.
🌏To provide policy makers an experience of wider measures of well-being.
🌎To be a leader in the happiness movement in your town, in your community, in your company.
🌍To give people a way to measure happiness.
🌏To raise awareness about what really matters in life.
🌎To change the conversation about how we define happiness.
🌍To expand the dialogue about the purpose of government.
🌏To provide policy makers an experience of wider measures of well-being.
🌎To be a leader in the happiness movement in your town, in your community, in your company.
Learn |
Learn-Up on the Happiness Movement
Read four articles written for you to quickly gain knowledge about the happiness movement and that together are a white paper* on the happiness movement
*a concise report about a complex issue written to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, and make a decision.
*a concise report about a complex issue written to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, and make a decision.
Keys to the Happiness Community Toolkit 🗝
⭐️ Deploy Happiness with the Happiness Index.
⭐️Gather data in your city, campus, company or community.
⭐️Raise awareness about what happiness is and how important it is.
⭐️Expand the conversation about the purpose of life and the purpose of government.
⭐️Use your the happiness index scores in your community, city, campus or company.
⭐️Give people direct access to understanding and assessing their own happiness and well-being.
Four papers that will give you a solid basis for leadership in the happiness movement
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More Happiness Reading
More to Read, Learn, Share*
OECD Better Life Index & the OECD How's Life Reports & OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being
*one need not read everything, but it's good to know about these publications, and often helpful to share in efforts to raise awareness.
Learn enough to know:
What is the purpose of your Happiness Initiative?
What is your model for engaging in your community, city, campus or company?
The paper Happiness In Communities gives examples of models of engagement.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
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SeeExamples of
Happiness Initiatives & Studies |
See enough to know:
What really inspires you to conduct your Happiness Initiative?
What gives you energy & a sense of purpose for your Happiness Initiative?
Connect |
Convene your community.
Start Small
Gather support. Experiment with raising awareness and expanding the conversation about what really matters in life. Gather advice and ideas for realizing your Happiness Initiative purpose.
Use the Happiness Report Cards and Happiness Handbooks (on the homepage) and tools from the How To Be Happy page to foster conversations
Use the Happiness Report Cards and Happiness Handbooks (on the homepage) and tools from the How To Be Happy page to foster conversations
Friends, Family, Colleagues...people in your life.
Who's on your Dream Team?
With your purpose in mind, what people and organizations will be helpful or necessary to realize the purpose of your Happiness Initiative? Once you convene your dream team, be open to adapting your purpose to the circumstances of your community, city, campus or company.
In your city, town or region, dream teams may representatives from local and regional governments (the mayor, city manager, council members, planning department, etc.), chamber of commerce, health authority, foundation, media, parks department, libraries, university and colleges, nonprofits and other organizations.
In your community, dream teams may include your neighbors, neighborhood councils, like-minded enthusiasts, or team members.
On your campus, dream teams may include the campus president, professors and faculty, students, and university press. In your classroom, dream teams may include a professor and students.
In your company, dream teams may include the C-level suite, managers from cross departments or within a department, and enthusiastic employees. On a project or for a team, dream teams may include the project manager and team members.
A big part of your connecting will be raising awareness and educating people about the happiness movement. Be ready to share what you have learned and to keep learning as you share.
Connect enough to know:
Do you have a plan and you feel good about your plan?
Do you feel like you have enough support to do what needs to be done?
Measure
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Measure Happiness with the Happiness Index
⭐️Give people direct access to understanding and assessing their own happiness and well-being.
⭐️Raise awareness about what happiness is and how important it is.
⭐️Gather data in your city, campus, company or community.
⭐️Expand the conversation about the purpose of life and the purpose of government.
⭐️Use your the happiness index scores in your community, city, campus or company.
⭐️Raise awareness about what happiness is and how important it is.
⭐️Gather data in your city, campus, company or community.
⭐️Expand the conversation about the purpose of life and the purpose of government.
⭐️Use your the happiness index scores in your community, city, campus or company.
Cost for use of the Happiness Index:
Size of Organization |
Community, Nonprofit, Informal Group |
Campus |
City, Town & Government |
Company |
Individual Project or Study |
$50.00 |
$50.00 |
$100.00 |
$200.00 |
Small (50 or less) |
$100.00 |
$200.00 |
$200.00 |
$300.00 |
Medium and Large |
$300.00 |
$500.00 |
$1500.00 |
$2500.00 |
What you get:
- A unique URL to gather data.
- Ability to add up to four questions, with option to add more at agreed upon price.
- Four intervals of access to your full data, with option for more intervals at an agreed upon price.
- 30 minutes of set-up consultation time, with the option for more time at an agreed upon price.
Download the Happiness Index Methodology (click here or the image below)
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Use the Happiness Index when:
You are ready to gather happiness data for your group (population).
You have an idea of how you will use your data.
Gather Data |
Tips for gathering data
with the
Happiness Index
for your
Happiness Initiative
Important lessons learned for gathering your data:
Have a plan for launching the Happiness Index for your Happiness Initiative. Start small. Ask your friends, family and colleagues to take the survey first. Then gather the data and have a conversation with them to explore ways to use the data. Learn from your small start. Convene your dream team and have them take the survey. Gather the data again, and have anther conversation with them about how to use it. Create a plan with your dream team to launch the survey for your area.
Involve the media. If someone from the media or with good media connections is on your dream team, then they can help engage the media early in your Happiness Initiative project, so that when you launch your Happiness Index, the media will be primed.
Have your own website or use a website with an easy to remember website address and name. Put a link to your Happiness Index URL on your website. You can also embed your Happiness Index URL in newsletters, blog posts, and social media posts. (This point may seem obvious, but it was a hard lesson learned for some Happiness Initiative leaders)
Let people know you are gathering data over a certain time frame, but allow people to take the survey after that time frame. You can gather data on a continual basis, but people generally prefer deadlines.
Let people know how the data will be reported and used, and how they can get informed and involved.
The difference between random samples and convenience samples
samples means the people who took your survey,
Random SamplesRandom sampling is a "sampling method in which all members of a group (population or universe) have an equal and independent chance of being selected" (businessdictionary.com).
Random sampling gives you data that represents your population. This is especially important for policy makers who want to use the data to make decisions. Random sampling can be done by telephone, online, mail ballots, in-person interviews and other means. Random sampling can be expensive. You usually hire a pollster to conduct a random sampling. Some Happiness Initiatives have involved a university class conducting a random sampling as part of the coursework (i.e. classes on random sampling). |
Convenience samplesConvenience sampling is a sampling of people who choose to take the survey. Depending on the size of the population, you need almost everyone in your population to take your survey through a convenience sampling to be sure it is representative OR you can "ground truth" by comparing the data you collected with your convenience sampling to data for the same or very similar question collected through a random sampling.
Convenience sampling may or may not represent your population. You would need to ground truth it to see if it did, but even then, it is very important you are clear when communicating about your data that it was collected through a convenience sampling. Data collected from a convenience sample does not mean it is not valid. The data does reflect the state of the people who took the survey. Convenience sampling of even very small samples can always be used to raise awareness and expand the conversation about the purpose of life and purpose of government. |
Begin to gather data when:
You have a plan that feels right to you.
You have a plan which others on your dream team agree to.
You have the resources and ability to fulfill the plan. (Scale down if you need to, and start small).
Tell your data story
Use your happiness data to tell a story
See examples with our Happiness Report Cards on our homepage.
Use your averages for the domains of happiness first.
Look at the data for domains and specific questions different aspects of demographics. Are youth unhappier than the general population in some areas? Which areas are people with low incomes suffering in more or less than other? You may decide to add questions so you can see how immigrants are doing compared to non-immigrants, etc.
Work with your friends, family and colleagues or your dream team to analyse the results and figure out the stories the data tells.
Engage with you community to get feedback on the data through town halls, world café style meetings, online forums, etc.
Create a beautiful report, even if it is a small part of a larger analytical report.
Put Yourself on the Happiness Map*
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*email info@happycounts.org with the name and location of your Happiness Initiative, your website, and a short description.
Create your report when:
You have analyzed your data.
You can clearly communicate about the nature of your sample (convenience or random).
You feel confident about the story your data tells.
You have a way to share it with your city, campus, community or company.*
*in some cases, your report will be for internal or small group use only,
Take Leadership in the Happiness Movement.
Now Online and On Demand:
The Happiness Initiative Leadership Training
Listen and Learn How to Be A Happiness Leader (you tube vids - click links if you can't see the vid)
Engage a Happiness Initiative Leadership Training
We have been fostering leadership in the Happiness Movement since 2010.
You gain from our role as a visionary role in the Happiness Movement, our outstanding expertise, and our practical experience working with communities, policy makers and academics world-wide.
Contact us today to start a conversation about how we can help you bring happiness to your work, campus, community, city, or country. info@happycounts.org
You gain from our role as a visionary role in the Happiness Movement, our outstanding expertise, and our practical experience working with communities, policy makers and academics world-wide.
Contact us today to start a conversation about how we can help you bring happiness to your work, campus, community, city, or country. info@happycounts.org
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Past trainings:
March 2012, New York City, NY August 23 & 24, 2012 Seattle, WA September 28 & 29, 2013 Seattle, WA November 16 and 17, 2013 Santa Fe, NM February 8 & 9, 2014 Seattle, WA March 22 & 23, 2014 Crescent City, CA May 3 & 4, 2014 Corvallis, OR May 31 & June 1, 2014 Burlington. VT September 20 & 21, 2014 Seattle, WA March 15, 2015 Santa Fe. NM May 21, 2016 Seattle, WA August 25, 2016, Seattle, WA January 22 & 23, 2019, Seattle, WA May 21 - 23, 2019, Bangkok, Thailand September, 2020, Sa Pa, Vietnam |
Buy the book! The first and only that tells you exactly how to become a happiness leader in your community. $19.99 & royalties go to the Happiness Alliance.
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Live online Happiness Initiative Leadership Training for your group
Contact us at info@happycounts.org |
Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
-Joseph Campbell
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Happy Community Toolkit Navigation
Still want more tools for community action?
Check out The Community Toolbox
For U.S. check out the Enactment of a Law website
Check out The Community Toolbox
For U.S. check out the Enactment of a Law website