In an effort to gauge most accurately valley residents’ opinion on life in this region, the Banff-Canmore Community Foundation is encouraging completion of a community survey.
Titled Bow Valley Community Survey 2017, How Are We Doing?, the voluntary survey covers a wide range of topics ranging from sports and recreation to ecological knowledge to social wellbeing and quality of life, among many others.
Once completed (the survey is fully anonymous), information will be compiled and a vital signs report completed for the public and municipal governments. Included will be areas where the public is content and areas where residents feel there is room for improvement.
As well, priorities identified will be used to direct the foundation’s community funding in order to best build a strong and vibrant community.
“The survey is a fairly holistic one,” said Rob Buffler, executive director. “It takes about 20 minutes to complete, but will provide a lot of information about people’s thoughts on their community.
“Essentially, it’s for the whole Bow watershed, and it will be more inclusive of the Stoney Nakoda. It will take in a lot of elements of community building – the environment, robust public health and social services and accessible education for all.
“The survey is designed to poll the community about where we think we are. In the past, we sort of focused on narrower areas, while this is a broader approach.”
As part of the survey, data collection will be important and BCCF is working with a data research firm in Calgary to disseminate the information.
The survey is currently underway, with results being collected until Dec. 15-18, depending on the number of responses. Once results are in, BCCF plans to collaborate with the towns of Banff and Canmore, along with the MD of Bighorn, ID9, Kananaskis Improvement District to complement and expand on what the municipal bodies are doing.
“We want to get a good representation from a good number of citizens from across the whole Bow Valley,” said Buffler.
The survey is broken down into focus areas, said Eli Panning-Osendarp, with sections having letter grades. “And there’s an opportunity to answer what the priorities might be for addressing concerns for the individual doing it.
“There are a couple of questions around truth and reconciliation, for example; trying to gauge community knowledge and whether people want to become more familiar with them.
“At the end of the survey is an opportunity for people to rank their top three assets to the community their top three priorities for further work. The last two sections are a quality of life survey with a whole bunch of agree/disagree statements that will show how people see their life in the Bow Valley.”
Finally, there is a demographic section where information as to age, income, type of employment, citizenship and ethnicity will be collected to break down trends.
Those taking the survey are eligible for three $100 VISA gift packs. As well, there is the opportunity to receive further BCCF information.
“Ultimately,” said Buffler, “we want our efforts to be community-owned so people have buy-in on how we make our grants, scholarships and disbursements. It’s part of our mission to build a strong and resilient community and this will help inform our process.”
To fill out the foundation’s community survey, visit bit.ly/BCCFSurvey2017.
