The Village of Oak Park | 123 Madison St.  Oak Park, IL 60302 | village@oak-park.us

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Community survey process underway

Update: Open participation window underway

Oct. 26, 2022 - Oak Park residents are invited to complete The National Community Survey during the open participation window that is ongoing through Nov. 16.

Click here to take the 2022 Community Survey

Residents who received the survey in the mail are urged to respond by following the instructions provided in letters sent to a random sample of households earlier this month. 

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Sept. 23, 2022 - Surveys soon will begin arriving in the mailboxes of Oak Parkers selected at random to help the Village gauge citizen views on a wide range of community aspects and issues.

While taking only about 20 minutes to complete, survey responses will help the Village Board and other local policy makers better understand priorities for government action and citizen opinions on quality of life and public services.

The survey is conducted by Polco (formerly the National Research Center), a social science research firm that specializes in gathering and analyzing information for public sector entities, including local governments, non-profit agencies and foundations.

Through its collaboration with the International City/County Management Association, Polco has developed a national database of community surveys and responses, which allows the Village to compare many of its results with those from similar communities in Illinois and across the country.

The National Research Center assisted with surveys here in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019, standardizing questions for accurate comparisons of findings over the years. Results of these past surveys are posted on the Village website at www.oak-park.us/communitysurveys.

Oak Parkers who receive a survey are urged to promptly complete and return the document to ensure their viewpoints are part of the final tabulation.

Residents randomly selected to participate in the survey will be able to submit their answers online using a special code intended to ensure that the respondent sample is truly random, a critical factor in establishing the scientific validity of the findings.

New this year will be an opportunity for the entire community to weigh in as part of an open participation window that will begin about four weeks after the random sample surveys are mailed.

As with past community surveys conducted for the Village, all responses are confidential and the results will be aggregated into a report that reflects the community as a whole. The report is expected to be available in early 2023.

Surveys in 2000 and 2004 were conducted by telephone. But as telephone response rates plummeted across the industry and costs rose, mail proved to be a more cost-effective and broader reach approach. The online option offered this year addresses the current trend in survey techniques.

For more information about the community survey, call 708.358.5770 or email village@oak-park.us.