Mountain Recreation launches online community survey
The rec district will use the responses to improve programs and facility accessibility
Mountain Recreation last week launched an online survey aimed at evaluating the quality of its current programs and the accessibility of its facilities. The survey will be available in both English and Spanish until Sunday, April 10.
The local rec district will use data to allow Mountain Recreation staff to assess community needs and lay the groundwork for future programs, activities and events.
“Mountain Recreation is not the district it once was,” said Anna Englehart, superintendent of recreation programs at Mountain Recreation, in a news release announcing the survey. “In the last 20 years the district has grown substantially, and we’ve had to evolve as our community’s needs change. We want to get a pulse on how we are serving our community, identify any gaps in service, and be able to shift our offerings, if need be, to further maximize already over-capacity spaces.”
The rec district is encouraging all Eagle County residents to participate, even if they don’t live within the district boundary — which spans from Dotsero to Edwards and to McCoy in the north. According to the release, respondents will be asked a variety of questions spanning frequency of facility use and program participation, barriers to entry, need for current programs, interest in potential future programs and about the district’s increasing outdoor recreation programs.
All questions are designed to gain an understanding on how these offerings currently impact the Eagle County community and identify how the district can evolve to meet new needs.
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The community survey is a departure from the rec district’s recent capital improvements surveys, which were conducted to inform its All Access Plan. The All Access Plan contemplates $60 million worth of improvements — which it will fund primarily through a $40 million mill levy increase if voters approve it in May — to its three main facilities. The capital improvement surveys helped the district identify space and amenity needs.
This community survey, while intertwined with these previous surveys has a different purpose and will deliver different data to the organization.
“The purpose of this survey is not to identify what new spaces and amenities our community needs; they’ve already told us that through extensive surveys, board meetings and Q&As,” said Eddie Campos, Mountain Recreation’s marketing and communication’s manager. “Instead, this survey is intended to evaluate if the district’s programs are serving all residents, rate the quality of its programs, and where the district can potentially improve and add new programs to fill service gaps.”
While Campos said that listening and acting on its community’s needs has always been part of its approach, the launch of this survey follows a diversity, equity and inclusion effort that the district started actively pursuing in January 2021. At that time, the district initiated a push to directly create a sense of belonging in its programs and facilities. This survey will help inform these efforts and ensure that community members feel that sense of belonging.
“It’s always been our process to ask our community what they need first, instead of providing offerings we think the community wants. We want Mountain Recreation to be able to strategically adapt and go beyond traditional government-run recreation,” Campos said in the release. “We want to create welcoming community centers for all. We hope this survey gives everyone a chance to shape how we as a community look out for our health together.”
The Mountain Rec community survey is available at MountainRec.org/survey now until Sunday, April 10. For more information, please contact Englehart at AEnglehart@MountainRec.org.
