Agenda Item Executive SummarY
ITEM TITLE*
title
2024 Community Survey Report and Next Steps
presenter
RESPONSIBLE STAFF, TITLE, DEPARTMENT*
Shay Stevens, Community Relations Manager, Communications and Engagement Department
ACTION/DECISION POINTS, INCLUDING STAFF RECOMMENDATIOn *
The Council will receive the 2024 Community Survey report.
body
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT*
Since 2009, the Town has contracted with ETC Institute to administer a biennial community survey. Past year’s surveys are on the Town’s website at www.townofchapelhill.org/government/newsroom/community-survey <http://www.townofchapelhill.org/government/newsroom/community-survey>
Every two years, the Town uses the community survey to gauge perceptions of Town services. The results help us benchmark and compare the results to peer cities. We also examine year-to-year trends to help us understand if key changes in our operations and services influence residents’ perceptions.
This year, ETC Institute administered the survey during the first quarter by mailing a six-page survey to a random sample of households in Chapel Hill. Respondents could complete the survey by mail, online, or by telephone. Interpretation and translation were offered in preferred languages upon request. This year, 401 households completed the survey.
Upon receiving the 2024 Community Survey report, staff met with Town departments to understand the survey results, identify initiatives and projects that are currently underway to address any areas of concern, and consider what else might be done to address those areas. Further information about these project lists can be found in the presentation in Attachment C.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The survey project cost of $18,500 was included in the 2023-24 budget.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION
Our survey consultant, ETC Institute monitors the distribution of the demographics in the completed surveys as they are collected to ensure the completed surveys reasonably reflect the true demographic composition of the Town regarding geographic dispersion, age, gender, race/ethnicity, as well as other factors. The goal for ETC Institute is to get the demographics of survey respondents to closely mirror the Census estimates for the Town to ensure that the results are representative of the Towns’ population.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The Town seeks to minimize barriers so residents may participate in Town services and programs: this includes our Language Access Plan and services, which supports the right of all residents to communicate with the Town in the language in which they prefer. Our survey consultant, ETC Institute, worked with the Town Communications & Engagement Department to include “language line” information in the survey cover letter. A “language line” is a hotline that provides on-demand phone interpretation services to individuals in their preferred language. The language phone lines that ETC Institute provided were able to accommodate speakers of the following languages: Arabic, Burmese, Karen, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. In addition to language lines for non-English speakers, ETC Institute also offered an English language survey phone line for English-speaking residents who preferred to take the survey by phone.
Attachments
Attachment A: COMMUNITY SURVEY_2024 Chapel Hill Community Survey Report
Attachment B: COMMUNITY SURVEY_Town of Chapel Hill 2024 Survey Presentation
Attachment C: COMMUNITY SURVEY_Town Staff Community Survey Next Steps Presentation
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