KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The City of Kalamazoo is encouraging residents to participate in an upcoming community-wide survey.
The National Community Survey is a benchmarking survey to evaluate how city government is serving residents, gauge perceptions of the city and make comparisons with peer communities across the country, a news release said Friday.
A sample of households will receive invitations to participation in March and April before the survey opens in late April.
It’ll focus on livability and resident perspectives about local government services, policies and management.
Scientific survey methods and best practices are used to generate a random sample of 3,000 households in the city, helping ensure that the results are statistically valid.
Of sampled households, half will receive a postcard inviting them to participate online, while the other half will receive the survey to complete by mail.
To ensure the validity of the results, officials ask the adult who has most recently had a birthday to complete the survey and survey links shouldn’t be shared.
Responses will be completely anonymous.
The survey will be opened to all community members for online participation starting April 27.
Online results will supplement the sampled households.
Kalamazoo has been conducting the survey at two-year intervals since 2017 and uses results to help inform budget priorities and program decisions.
“We know that not everyone can make it to a community meeting or connect online,” said Laura Lam, deputy city manager for the City of Kalamazoo, “and the pandemic has created new challenges for community engagement. The NCS is an opportunity to safely reach out to our community and connect with community members who may not always have their voices heard.”
Reports detailing the survey’s findings will be published in early June.
2017 and 2019 reports can be found here.
