Public opinion research represents a form and extension of public involvement. The traditional forms of public involvement (e.g., town halls, open houses, farmer’s market booths, etc.) are prone to poor attendance, self-selecting participants, the usual suspects, unrepresentative findings, and at times, hijacked meetings. Opinion research can assure that public participation really means hearing from a broad cross-section of the community by involving a random pool of citizens. DHM has used telephone and online survey research, focus groups, and large group studies to serve as a complete project or to supplement more conventional forms of public involvement, including:
  • Your City, Your County, Your Choice Community Survey: In addition to a telephone survey and scientific online survey used in the “Your City, Your County, Your Choice” research which helped the City of Portland and Multnomah County develop its budget 2009-11 budgets, over 1,400 residents shared their feedback about budget priorities in the community online survey. The survey was available on the City of Portland and Multnomah County websites, promoted to residents through ads in newspapers and weekly’s, neighborhood meetings, and outreach to young people through text messaging, MySpace, and Facebook.
  • Lake Oswego Community Conversations: This community engagement project included three large group studies (large-scale focus groups) with over 70 Lake Oswego residents and an online survey of over 400 residents in a 2 month period. This was an extensive public involvement project to assess residents’ satisfaction with city services, their awareness of uses of city facilities, and their ideas for future uses of those facilities. This research aided the City of Lake Oswego with future infrastructure planning.
  • PPS Student High School Redesign Focus Groups: Conducted focus groups with eighth grade boys, eighth grade girls, high school boys, high school girls, high school dropout boys and high school dropout girls from the Portland Public Schools (PPS) to better understand students’ perspectives of and wishes for improving their high schools. Students were representative of the district’s actual geographic, income, and minority demographic population. In addition to the focus groups, over 2,300 students shared their opinions for high school redesign through an online survey made available to students on the PPS website, and promoted within all PPS schools by teachers, flyers, and at school events.
  • Cornelius Parks and Recreation Community Survey: At total of 545 residents shared their priorities for the Cornelius Parks and Recreation Plan Update through the Cornelius Parks and Recreation Community Survey, which was available for residents to complete in English or Spanish online and by hard copy. The URL to the online survey was posted on the City of Cornelius website, and hard copies of the survey were available to residents at various government buildings throughout the city, and distributed to major employers, churches, and at community events. Professional bi-lingual interviewers were also stationed at the city’s major grocery store. 
  Public Involvement Client List