What is the purpose of the Community Assessment?
The Community Assessment will provide up-to-date, accurate information about the characteristics, needs, and priorities of the LCO community. Tribal leadership will use this data to inform strategic planning and prioritize community needs and concerns in the development and delivery of programs and services.
Who will participate in the survey?
A sample of households on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation will be selected at random to participate in the Community Assessment. A random selection of households allows for an unbiased representation of the community and its needs. Additionally, LCO member households in Sawyer County will be invited to participate. The representative of each home who completes the survey should be at least 18 years old.
Why should I take this survey?
LCO leadership has recognized a need for true, accurate information about reservation residents and LCO members living off-reservation in Sawyer County. It is a necessary component of self-determination that we collect our own data about our own people, instead of relying on other sources to tell us about our people and our lands. Your responses are vital to helping LCO understand the priorities, needs and situations of our community members. The information from the census will be used to assist in program planning, determining new services to offer, and prioritization of tribal resources. We also guarantee confidentiality of all responses.
Will compensation be provided for my participation?
Each of the randomly selected households on the reservation and LCO member households living off-reservation in Sawyer County that completes and returns the survey will receive an incentive and be entered into a raffle drawing.
How does my household participate in the Community Assessment?
Residents of the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation have been hired to administer the Community Assessment survey form to randomly selected households on the reservation through household visits. If you are not home during a visit, a staff member will try again at another time or a time can be scheduled for a future visit. The survey can also be taken online using the code provided to your household by the Community Assessment staff member who visits your home. This code ensures that no one else can complete the survey form for you and it lets us know when your household has completed the form.
If you are an LCO member and live off-reservation in Sawyer County, you will be sent a survey form and a survey code through the mail at the address on file with the Enrollment Office. Please update your Enrollment information so we can reach you! You can return the completed paper form using the included self-addressed stamped envelope. You will also have the option to complete the form online.
Who will see my household’s answers?
All information collected through the Community Assessment will be strictly confidential and will never be used against you or your household. None of your household’s answers will be linked to names or other identifying information. Once we have collected all the survey forms we will remove all the identifying information from the database. All data and information from the Community Assessment will only be reported in aggregate; that is, we will only report on the information of groups, never individuals. All staff members working on the Community Assessment are bound by confidentiality agreements, as is the consultant helping us to conduct the assessment.
Is my information safe?
All the answers to the Community Assessment will be stored in a secure database. The survey will not ask questions that could identify an individual or household. While addresses are used to locate the households that are included in the sample, this information is removed prior to producing the final data sets. Names of household residents will not be asked for in this survey. All results and findings collected during the survey will be aggregated along with other survey participants to guarantee confidentiality and privacy.
What types of questions will I be asked in the Community Assessment survey?
Household size and demographic information
Housing and utilities
Income
Employment
Education
Child and elder care
Health and wellness
Culture and language
Your priorities for the Band