We asked for your input and you responded.
The Sandy Springs Diversity & Inclusion Task Force was developed as a way to explore areas where Sandy Springs can advocate for greater inclusion. Recently, the task force partnered with Sandy Springs Together to create an 18-question online survey, in both English and Spanish, to gather community feedback on diversity, inclusion, usage and awareness within our parks and rec services.
We were thrilled to receive 715 survey responses from community members, an unexpectedly high number. It’s clear that Sandy Springs residents are engaged and interested in how our parks and recreation services are utilized.
We promoted the unscientific survey via email and Facebook and have summarized the top-line survey results below.
- 85% of respondents use Sandy Springs parks; 15% do not.
- 74.4% of respondents indicated that they feel “extremely welcome” or “very welcome” at Sandy Springs parks.
According to the 715 survey respondents, they use and feel welcome in our public parks and recreation facilities. Sandy Springs residents indicated they enjoy getting out into nature and value park features like open spaces, river access, accessible parking and equipment and programs for children.
However, Sandy Springs parks & rec facilities still face a major challenge: communication.
- Less than 20% of respondents felt “extremely aware” or “very aware” of events at public parks.
There appears to be an awareness gap around park events, services and facilities and the single biggest factor preventing residents from using Sandy Springs Parks & Recreation facilities and programs is a lack of knowledge about what’s available.
- The majority of respondents (56.4%) prefer to hear about free park events through email. 15% prefer Facebook communications and 14.1% prefer text messages.
In order to increase usage of Sandy Springs parks and recreation facilities and boost attendance at park events, we suggest greater outreach to residents through email, Facebook and text messaging, with the strongest focus on email.
Our goal at Sandy Springs Together is to do our part to make sure our community is welcoming to all. From housing and job opportunities, to accessibility at public parks and community spaces, we want EVERYONE to feel like they have a place in Sandy Springs.
