For the third consecutive year the city is giving residents an opportunity to have their voice heard when it comes to their safety and wellbeing.
The annual survey is part of an ongoing data collection and analysis that came out of a community and wellbeing and safety strategy passed unanimously by city council in 2019.
“It helps us better understand our community. Its always good to hear directly from the community to get in the trenches and see, hear, and feel what they are experiencing,” says Martin Thomsen, Manager of Community Social Development.
The survey touches on topics such as housing, employment, education and poverty and Thomsen says the goal is to address these issues using all the data at the city’s fingertips. “Its about making evidence-informed decisions to allow us to ask if we need to put more money into mental health, addictions, or affordable housing,” he adds.
What normally happens in annual surveys is the number of responses drop year over year. In 2019 there were over 1900 responses but that was reduced to 550 in 2020. Since launching this year’s survey on Monday there have been nearly 600 completed.
Communications and Facilitating Specialist Melissa Johnson hopes that with the social and COVID climates the number will continue to rise. “We use a robust communications strategy to get the survey out and we hope to use the results as a guiding principle for our programming going forward.”
Thomsen says 2000 responses from a statistical perspective would be fantastic. “Hopefully we can get more people to complete it. Its short, easy to complete, and at the very least is an education tool for the community. Social issues are important, and we are trying to address them.”
Lethbridge is attempting to make the survey more accessible for people who don’t have access to a computer, so they have contacted their 311 services to accommodate everyone wanting to take it. The survey closes on February 7 and can be found here at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PD9HLF7.