The Town of Scarborough is in the process of conducting a formal community-wide survey to seek resident input on satisfaction with town services and relevant issues. The survey is currently open to all residents to complete online at www.scarboroughsurvey.org. It should take 10-15 minutes to complete and results are anonymous. A similar survey was most recently conducted in 2021. The purpose of setting a foundation of regular surveying is to get a pulse on community needs and benchmark data over time. Prior to 2021, it had been 11 years since a formal survey was conducted.
The survey is administered through a third-party vendor, ETC Institute, to ensure validity and maintain anonymity. Their administration of the survey also ensures that it is statistically valid and representative of varying demographics. A print version of the survey was mailed to a random sample of 4,000 Scarborough addresses in October with a goal of receiving at least 600 completed responses. With this minimum now met, the survey is open to all residents who have not received the mailed survey. It will remain open until late December.
Survey results are expected to be available by January and will help inform the Town Council for setting their 2024 goals. ETC Institute will provide the town with an analysis that can be evaluated across key demographic variables such as age, gender, income, number of years lived in the town, geographic characteristics, and others. The results will be presented publicly to the Town Council during a January council meeting and a comprehensive report will be made available on the town’s website. Additionally, the survey company will prepare digital maps displaying the results of specific questions on the survey by geographic area to show how well the town is delivering services to various parts of town. (Addresses of survey respondents are geocoded to the block latitude and longitude coordinates to ensure the exact location of a respondent’s household remains anonymous).
The community survey is a council initiative. Feedback from community members is largely relied upon to identify areas of focus for council initiatives and future policy decisions. The communications committee underwent a Request for Proposals and vetting process in 2021 to choose a vendor to conduct the survey at that time. ETC Institute was chosen due to its prominent experience in the industry with similar surveys being conducted nationally and its ability to visually present the findings through the interactive map. After a successful experience in 2021, the 2023 survey is again being administered by the same vendor in order to provide continuity in the process and results.
The online survey is now open to all Scarborough residents who did not receive the mailing. We encourage you to take 10-15 minutes to share your feedback by going to www.scarboroughsurvey.org. You will be asked to give a rating on a variety of areas and topics, including the quality of the public library, schools, public safety, growth, traffic & transportation, environment, as well as our parks and beaches and more.
Understanding your satisfaction with the topics and town services is critical to helping us better serve you and will inform us of areas for improvement. We value your opinion and greatly appreciate your willingness to share your feedback for the benefit of our community.
To stay connected to updates regarding the community, be sure to sign up for the Town of Scarborough’s twice monthly email newsletter. If you have any questions regarding the survey and process, please contact Assistant Town Manager Liam Gallagher at lgallagher@scarboroughmaine.org.
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