It’s a whole new world out there. So walking a straight line from the present to the future will soon get you marooned on a path with out of date services and old school financing. As parks and recreation customers age, the community grows or contracts and as district finances shrink, there is less room for error in identifying the right mission, funding mechanisms and service mix for the critical services that make for a healthy community. Important parks, recreation, open space, cultural and educational services cannot be delivered with anything less than passionate enthusiasm and critical attention to quality. And you cannot sit alone or in a managers group to divine whether your customers and potential customers view the local parks and recreation world the way you do.

• What roles do residents want parks and recreation to serve?
• How desirable a community has been created so far in all the areas designated for parks and recreation?
• How good a job do residents feel has been done in delivering department services?
• Which community groups feel they are being served best by parks and recreation? Worst?
• How widely are facilities and programs used by different resident groups?
• What services need the most improvement and are most important to residents?
• What improvements being considered do residents support the most?
• Where is it safest to cut? Where needs to be added?
• How healthy is the adult population here?

Parks and recreation managers use PARCS™ results to provide support for:

• Planning
• Performance measurement
• Evaluation of program, facility, policy and even personnel changes
• Budgeting among competing agencies and overall resource allocation within the department
• Priority setting for policy and program changes
• Service enhancements
• Communication to residents, taxpayers, clients, potential clients and other stakeholders

PARCS™ Options

The PARCS Basic Service Package consists of:

• Customized survey form to reference your facilities and programs
• Customized cover letter
• Customized mailing materials with your logo
• Targeted questionnaire developed and tested by renowned survey researchers
• Maximized response rate with three mailings to 1,600 households selected at random: a pre-survey notification postcard followed by two mailings of the survey
• A margin of error of five to six percent
• Data cleaning and input
• Data weighting to reflect the demographic profile of your population
• Customer service and survey research consultation from NRC research professionals

Additional features that can be added to the basic PARCS service include:

• Larger mailing (3,000 households)(more)
  Mail out 3,000 surveys (instead of 1,200) to a random sample. Responses will likely number between 600 and 1,500. Larger sample sizes also permit more segmenting of the results – by area, respondent characteristic, etc. Cost: $6,300
• Survey also available in Spanish (more)
  A paragraph in Spanish appears in the cover letter, explaining the survey and inviting the respondent to contact a member of your organization’s staff by phone to request a translated survey. Cost: $1,100
• Web data collection (more)
  The mailed survey will also be available online. It will be available only to those households selected as part of the random, scientific sample. Results will be included along with the mailed survey results in the reports. Cost: $900
• Demographic subgroup comparisons (more)
  Subgroup comparisons will be provided in a separate report for up to four demographic questions by most questions on the survey. You will receive an additional worksheet to complete if you select this option. Cost: $800
• Geographic subgroup comparisons (more)
  Subgroup comparisons will be provided in a separate report for one set of geographic identifying data by most questions on the survey. NRC staff will work with you to define the geographic areas; this will need to be determined before the mailings begin. Cost: $1,000
• On-site presentation of results (more)
  NRC staff will present survey results with staff, Council, Boards or other appropriate groups. Cost includes travel expenses for sites within the 48 contiguous United States and within 50 minutes by car of an international airport. Contact us to discuss additional pricing if these parameters do not apply to your location. Cost: $2,700
• Next Steps Workshop (more)
  In a half day workshop, an NRC staff member will work with up to 20 key staff, elected officials and/or resident decision-leaders to describe survey results and to plan for next steps that your organization should take. The workshop will result in identification of key action items and a process for moving forward. Cost: $3,500
• Focus Group (more)
  To further explore one topic or issue that arose from the survey results, NRC will conduct one follow-on focus group with 8-10 residents. Includes cost for incentives. Assumes your organization will provide the facility and refreshments for the focus group. Does not include travel costs. Those costs will be passed through directly to your organization. Cost: $3,900
• Additional Focus Group (more)
  Additional focus groups on the same topic as the first focus group with similar participants (8-10 residents). Includes cost for incentives. Assumes your organization will provide the facility and refreshments for the focus group. Does not include travel costs. Those costs will be passed through directly to your organization. Cost: $2,200