University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
History of the MPA and City Partnership Since 2009, the City of Oshkosh has partnered with Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduate students and faculty to conduct the Oshkosh Citizen Survey. Each spring, residents are asked questions pertaining to several areas, such as their quality of life, feelings of safety, and their perceptions on the quality and importance of city services related to public safety, public works, community services, economic development, parks, and transportation. Such surveys are a common way for municipalities to engage residents and get their feedback, which can help staff set priorities and make improvements based on the concerns of their community. Challenges to Representation One of the key challenges with municipal surveys is achieving representativeness of the actual community. The people that respond to such surveys are often overwhelmingly white, middle-class, and aged 60 and above. Lacking input from diverse voices, the results are skewed to reflect the perceptions and needs of privileged groups. And the community members that are more acutely impacted by and/or rely on city services fail to be heard. When Dr. Sam Larson joined the UWO public administration faculty and took the lead on the Oshkosh Citizen Survey, increasing representation of communities of color was one of her key goals. It was also on the minds of Administrative Staff. For instance, out of 309 respondents to the 2016 survey, 97% identified as white, whereas 90.5% of Oshkosh residents are white according to the 2010 Census. That year, the survey included a question that asked: “The City of Oshkosh is currently studying the feasibility of creating a Diversity Coordinator position. The purpose of the position would be to address issues and identify solutions to make Oshkosh a more inclusive and welcoming community. How supportive would you be for the creation of such a position?” Only 28% were supportive, which is not surprising given only 3% of respondents belonged to communities of color. Other demographic characteristics where also far from the actual 2010 Census figures. In 2017, 40.5% of respondents made more than $150,000 annually, which was 13 times higher than the actual Oshkosh community. None made less than $25,000 per year, whereas 28% of Oshkosh residents fit into that income category. No ethnicity question was included in the survey, while 2.7% of Oshkosh residents identify as Hispanic or Latino. And whereas 39.3% of Oshkosh residents are under age 40, only 14% of survey respondents were between 18-39 years old. New Recruitment Strategies In 2018, several steps were taken to enhance outreach and recruit participants from communities of color, young adults and millennials in their 20s and 30s, and low-income residents. Whereas previous surveys were mailed to a random selection of residents using the City of Oshkosh utility data, the research team introduced two new methods to increase diversity of respondents. First, field surveys were conducted by the research team. They physically went to various locations throughout the City to recruit, such as the Oshkosh Public Library, Oshkosh GO Transit System, and the Kids & Cops Basketball Game hosted by Fit Oshkosh. Second, the City contracted with Polco, an online polling company designed to connect local government with its citizens. The UWO research team used Polco to distribute the survey online. The ability to reach additional participants and determine representativeness in real time was a major advantage of the service. In 2019, the City moved to a fully online survey. By implementing these strategies over the past two years, the survey has become more representative of Oshkosh residents. In 2019, 5.4% of respondents identified as people of color, compared to .8% in 2017. In addition, 2.9% identified as Hispanic or Latino in 2019, compared to 2.7% in the 2010 Census. And 16% lived in a household with an annual income under $25,000, whereas no survey respondents selected that income category two years prior. Progress is being made. However, the research team still has work to do. In 2020, additional measures are being taken to enhance representation with the leadership of two graduate research assistants. Raabia Waheed: Leading Outreach to Diversify Voice Raabia Waheed was born in Pakistan. She was 14 years old when her parents made the difficult decision to migrate to the U.S. so their children could benefit from superior education, plentiful job opportunities and live the American dream. She obtained a BS in Psychology from UWO and is now pursing her Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. Raabia is honored to be a part of MPA program that has given her the opportunity to work with the City of Oshkosh. Raabia’s dream is to work as a public servant and give back to her community. As a person belonging from a minority group and further having an extensive background in education, Raabia is applying her networking skills to enhance diverse perspectives. She has created flyers, recruited participants through social media, and tabled with the help of her sister, Abeer Dar, at the Oshkosh Public Library, UW Oshkosh Reeve Union, Oshkosh Convention Center, Appleton Islamic Center, and Neenah Mosque. Additionally, Raabia has led efforts to partner with minority-owned businesses, such as the Oshkosh Mediterranean Food Market, to hand out survey flyers to multi-ethnic customers. Raabia is utilizing her ethnic background to recruit family and friends. Raabia’s mother, Akeela Jabeen, has also assisted with outreach to multi-racial Oshkosh community members, including refugees and recent immigrants of the Oshkosh city, whose voices matter as much as local Oshkosh citizens, but are often overlooked. As an MPA student, Raabia emphasizes that “students’ voices and feedback play an essential role in improving city services and setting priorities.” UW Oshkosh faculty also understand the importance of diverse voices. Raabia’s former supervisor, Alicia Johnson, Director of Women’s Center, and Raabia’s former adviser and professor, Courtney Bauder, Program Director of Social Justice Minor, have agreed to help by administering the survey to their students. With Raabia’s contribution, we expect to see a considerable uptick in respondent representativeness. Rattana Akey: Analyzing Results to Ensure Representation Rattana Akey grew up in Thailand and has lived in United Stated of America since 2005. She is a Master of Public Administration candidate graduating in Spring 2020 and the STEP Citizen Survey Research Assistant this year. Rattana is honored to be part of this team and collaboratively enjoys working on the Oshkosh Citizen Survey Project.
Trained through the MPA program, Rattana has applied research and analysis skills to recruit participants for the Citizen Survey Project. She has also used her life experiences working with various ethnic backgrounds to meet goals of representation and communicate with groups in a culturally appropriate manner. Rattana has contacted campus leaders and asked them to share the survey, including the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, the UWO Library, American Indian Student Services, and the Men of Color and Latino/a Hispanic Initiatives. Rattana encourages all to participate in 2020, noting: “As the City is trying to create more inclusive and supportive community, all Oshkosh citizens are encouraged to actively participate in the Citizen Survey. Due to the critical role for all active citizens, sharing their voice by engaging in the Citizen Survey will help shape the community into a better place to live.” Notably, Rattana is preparing a weekly demographic report, which is used to track how representative survey respondents are compared to Oshkosh as a whole. This is allowing the team to conduct further outreach to groups with scarce participation. This year, she is also creating a trends report of the citizen survey results from 2009-2020. This longitudinal analysis will provide a broader understanding of increases in respondent representativeness over time. More importantly, it will illustrate how participant perceptions have changed in response to questions that ask if Oshkosh is A place accepting of diversity and A place moving in the right direction. City staff are especially interested to see how perceptions have changed over time and to understand which quality of life indicators and services residents have most identified as needing the greatest attention. How You Can Help The research team encourages all Oshkosh residents to participate in the 2020 Oshkosh Citizen Survey. It takes just 5-10 minutes to complete. The survey will be open until Friday, April 24. As the spread of coronavirus continues and Governor Evers’ “Safer at Home” order is now in effect, the team has limited opportunities to recruit through tabling and community outreach. However, the 2020 Oshkosh Citizen Survey is a great way for residents to share their feedback on safety and city services during this emergency.
2 Comments
6/29/2023 01:58:45 am
Great post! Please continue sharing informative content.
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Nicole Gerow
2/28/2024 08:25:31 am
Hello,
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UWO EDICWelcome to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh) Equity, Diversity, Inclusive Climate (EDIC) Blog. Through this blog we will highlight the work that our committee is doing around issues of diversity and inclusion at UW Oshkosh. Archives
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