changelabsolutions.org 11 Surveys Surveys are effective for gathering data on the perspectives, attitudes and beliefs of residents, community leaders, or government staff. Although hearing directly from the people affected yields valuable insights, qualitative survey responses often require additional analysis. Ways to gather these data include questionnaires, key informant interviews, focus groups, and community forums. It may be helpful to identify ongoing resident engagement processes and established relationships between government staff and community leaders, so that a parks system assessment can complement and build on existing efforts. Existing Data Local government departments or community partners may already collect local statistics, including data on health inequities. In addition, publicly available national datasets can be helpful because they are presented in a standard format that facilitates comparison across jurisdictions or geographic areas. Examining data can be a quick way to get a snapshot of current conditions, but the data might not reflect all perspectives; thus, it is important to use both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods in an assessment. When analyzing data, it is also important to consider the time period in which the data were collected and how regularly they are updated in order to assess whether they accurately capture current conditions. People whose primary role involves liaising between local government and communities, or coordinating across city, county, or regional departments can be especially helpful in connecting people who are interested in assessment with unusual stakeholders and relevant local data sources. Assessment of a parks system requires pulling data from a variety of sources and is enhanced by including diverse perspectives. Collaboration among multiple communities, sectors, and departments can result in a more efficient and robust assessment and yield coherent strategies to improve the parks system as well as other systems such as transit, safety, and public works. Assessing how the parks system interacts with overlapping systems allows parks to be improved in a comprehensive way rather than piecemeal, and by sharing the work of assessing and improving a parks system, everyone in the group can be more efficient and more effective in creating great local parks for residents, workers, and visitors, to enjoy.
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