The results of the 2018 community survey were released this week and include some shifts in trends.

Steve Johnston of the Community Alliance said the survey, which has been completed every two years since 2010, helps development of priorities for St. Joseph and Buchanan County. This year’s survey had a 36% response rate.

Johnston said, with trends, a few things have switched order within the past two years. Johnston said according to the 2018 survey, a shift has shown that the number one concern is safety and security.

“That’s always been a priority for our residents, they want to feel safe in their homes… their workplace, they want to feel safe throughout our entire community,” Johnston said. “That has elevated a little bit and there’s a variety of reasons for that, this is not just a local issue… it’s kind of a nationwide trend that we hear from the organization that helps us with the survey.”

Other topics that residents indicated were important moving forward included public education and jobs.

“Some of the priorities for the St. Joseph School District, in terms of trending, is being transparent. That took a huge increase this year, it’s one of the positive things from the survey. The other thing, with respect to the school district, is also engaging the community, getting resident input as they move forward, so that was a positive as well too,” Johnston said. “The final thing that residents feel that’s most important for the future is jobs. Residents feel like they have opportunities for jobs here in our community and we know the job market’s tight but, nevertheless, there are opportunities there and that’s a plus for our community and that bumped up about nine percent as well.”

Residents were asked to indicate the level of funding in the St. Joseph School District. Twenty-seven percent (27%) indicated the district receives the right amount of funding; 54% feel there is too little funding, and 11% indicated there is too much funding. The remaining 8% of residents did not have an opinion about funding in the school district. Survey results from 2016 indicated 38% felt there was too little funding.

Johnston said the quality of the parks and recreation programs and facilities rated at 66 percent.

“When we benchmark against other communities in America, most of our folks in Missouri and Kansas and then throughout the United States rate that in the 64 to 67 percent satisfaction rate,” Johnston said. “It is probably among one of the top areas in the community. People take pride in our parks, in our recreational facilities, our trail walks and all kinds of different things, but it’s a real positive.”

The Community Alliance will spend the next few months looking at the data and determining short and long-term goals to develop strategies.

For the full results of the survey, click here.