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Question:
What would you do to ensure the information of the survey you are collecting is accurate and reflects the needs and wants of residents
Answer:

Thank you for Consulting the Community Toolbox Ask an Advisor. I hope this response helps you with your community survey needs. Feel free to follow up if this response is unclear to you or not exactly what you were seeking. 
There are a few main concerns for you to think through when conducting a survey when you want to truly represent the community you are working within. First, you want to make sure that the questions you are asking are relevant to the community and its needs. Second, you want to make sure that community members understand the questions in the same way that you do when asking them. Third, you need to make sure that the sample of people that you get surveys from are a good representation of the entire community. Fourth, it is a good idea to work with the community when interpreting the survey results, so that the findings are as closely tied to the reality of community member's lives as possible. Of course, there are many technical aspects of survey creation and collection to attend to, but since you did not ask about those specifically, I am focusing on making sure responses accurately represent community perspective.
Before the survey process begins, it is good to either reflect on and/or embark upon a process of determining whether or not the focus of your survey is relevant to the community you will be surveying. Ideally, the survey springs from a longer-term working relationship with the community and the survey is a cooperative enterprise. You will be asking community members to devote their time and energy to this process; it is very important to make sure that it is a worthy investment for them. This can be done by attending public meetings, through formal and informal conversations with community members and community leaders, reading local news sources, and more. The bottom line is that you should only be surveying a community when your findings will very likely improve the lives of the people within that community.
When conducting a survey you are either using an existing survey instrument, a modified existing survey instrument, or you are creating a new instrument. No matter which you use, I highly suggest conducting cognitive interviews to make sure that the content and wording are relevant and make sense to people from the community with which you are working. Here is a good resource for cognitive interviews: https://www.hkr.se/contentassets/9ed7b1b3997e4bf4baa8d4eceed5cd87/gordonwillis.pdf . The basic idea is that you will walk through the survey with community members and have them explain to you what each item means to them. This will let you know if they understand the concepts and the words used in the survey questions. This also gives you further insight into the relevance of the questions.
In the survey section of the Community Toolbox (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/conduct-surveys/main), which would be a great section for you to consult, there is a subsection on sampling. Proper sampling helps ensure that the group of people who return questionnaires represent the entire community. I suggest you use the linked survey size calculator to figure out how many completed questionnaires you will need. Remember that it isn't just about numbers; it's also about reaching a representative group. This means reaching out beyond the usual suspects that come to meetings and are easily accessible. Making connections in the community and earning enough trust to get such a representative sample is not always easy. In many communities, it is advisable to establish positive, lasting connections with trusted community leaders who can help you gain access to your potential respondents. It is a good idea to make sure you are as inclusive as you can be with your sampling and associated cognitive interviews, in particular, attending to youth residents. Though your time and resources may be limited, please consider including a youth version of your survey (assuming you are referring to adults when you wrote "residents".)  Talk to community members about including youth and then follow a similar process as outlined above so that you have representation among youth residents.  Define your age range for that particular survey and make sure that a sampling of youth from your age range understand the wording, concepts, and survey instructions.
After you have gathered your results from a survey, it is time to analyze and interpret. Assuming the technical aspects of analysis are not an issue, we move on to interpretation. This is best done with community members that will understand the responses through the context of their community. They are the local experts and will have insights into the meaning of the responses and their application. This process could start with a few community leaders and then move to a more public forum. It should work to keep the focus on the meaning and utility for the community itself, rather only than some larger research goal.

Question Date: Dom, 04/04/2021