Council discusses needs-assessment survey outreach, QR codes and multilingual materials

Council members reported progress on a town needs assessment intended to inform human-services planning and grant priorities, and they discussed outreach tactics to increase responses from year-round and seasonal residents.

Consultant Marcos visited the island for primary interviews and initial in-person outreach; the council said the survey had reached about 100 responses at the time of the Oct. 23 meeting and that stakeholder and provider outreach was ongoing. The council plans a two-track survey approach with separate instruments for year-round residents and seasonal workers; the surveys are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Chair Veronica Golczyk instructed members to direct respondents to the project web page and banner at accares.net and said the team will distribute QR-code PDFs and printable flyers to community organizations for in-person outreach.

Members said radio advertising and targeted social-media outreach will run through the winter. The council stated a sample-size goal for statistical benchmarking (roughly 398 respondents) and said it expects initial reporting and benchmark comparisons to be available as CRC deliberations begin in November. Members encouraged distribution points including food-pantry pick-up sites, senior centers, churches and community meal programs; staff said consultant Marcos will return in the spring for follow-up collection timed to seasonal-worker arrivals.

The council also discussed procedures for collecting hard-copy surveys when respondents cannot complete the form online and said staff or volunteers can enter hard-copy responses into the digital survey if needed. The council agreed to prepare printable QR-code handouts (English, Spanish, Portuguese and seasonal/year-round variants) and circulate them to community partners and volunteers ahead of special town meeting and other large gatherings.