Anoka County Case Study Essay

Anoka County used three strategies to involve as many as well as a variety of residents in the process. A major effort was made using community surveys. The survey was available in three languages including English, Spanish and Hmong. The surveys were made available to Anoka County residents and workers in churches, schools, libraries, city hall, dental and doctor's offices, government centers, food selves, etc. There were also multiple press releases made to the media informing Anoka County residents of the online option to take the survey via Anoka County Community Health and Environmental Services (CHES) Department. Despite only roughly 1,400 people responding to the survey, the respondents were a representative sample of the population.
Problems, concerns, and issues that affect the residents of Anoka County’s overall health and well-being were discussed during these interviews. The last community involvement strategy was creating twenty-one focus groups, each group speaking on behalf of a smaller population within Anoka County. For example, a few of the focus groups consisted of parents, seniors, community representatives, religious community members, and school representatives. The key informant interviews and focus groups were effective in incorporating many issues and prioritizing the problems presented in the conversations, but the people involved seemed to primarily be professionals and people who already had a strong voice in the community. It would have been more beneficial to hear about issues and problems from random community members that are not super involved because they present new perspective and may face different problems than people of a professional status. Overall, Anoka County was successful at involving the community because their results were a representative sample of the population as a