Where are your parks and recreation services going and where
should they be headed?
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soon get you marooned on a path with out of date services and old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.
If your parks and recreation services are to help create a
healthy, active, informed and fulfilled community, it is imperative
that you know the status and concerns of the community you serve.
Think how useful it would be to have the answer to key
strategic
questions for your community.
- 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?
There is only one way that these key questions can be answered
responsibly – a scientific public opinion survey of residents being
served or eligible for service. As times change – and the fact that
times change, itself, never changes – savvy parks and recreation
managers need to keep a finger on the pulse of the community they
serve. Like a doctor diagnosing a patient, the right medical assessment
helps a broad range of people with a stake in the patient’s health.
With the kind of parks and recreation strategic reconnaissance that
comes from asking residents themselves about the direction and quality
of services, the community at large is served as are elected officials,
appointed boards, commissions, the media and your own staff.
How are we Doing, Where are we Going
The Parks and Recreation Community Survey (PARCS™) is a
rigorously tested, affordable, turnkey survey that is administered by
National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) in partnership with the National Recreation and Parks Association
(NRPA). PARCS was designed for parks and recreation managers
by some of
the country’s most well-respected survey research practitioners in
conjunction with America’s premier parks and recreation membership
organization. You are the parks and recreation experts. Rely on
respected survey researchers to bring you the planning information you
need.
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™ is a quality
scientific survey service that offers six
central features:
- A survey tested across the U.S. to capture community
opinion about parks and recreation
- Low cost due to efficiency
- Top quality customer service and research consultation from
America’s best social science survey researchers
- Comparison results from other places to provide
interpretive richness and context to your own findings
- Results that help drive planning, evaluation and
performance tracking
- Trustworthy results from the use of state of the art survey
research methods
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
Getting Started
It’s easy to have PARCS conducted in your area. Send an email
to parcs@n-r-c.com and NRC
professionals will contact you via email or phone, whichever you
prefer. We’ll answer your questions and send you a simple starter kit
with a few pieces of information to complete. We’ll give you references
and costs (starting at $11,500) and a timeline that will work for your
specific use. An example timeline appears below.
