Public Awareness Survey
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2009-10 Public Awareness Survey Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 1 Acknowledgements This report was created by volunteers and staff of the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC) Monitoring Committee: Sarodha Rajkumar (Chair) ArcelorMittal Dofasco Victor Cairns DFO Emeritus, and BARC Director David Gale Conservation Halton Michel Gringas Westway Terminals John Hall (Resource) Hamilton Harbour RAP Office Roland Weiler Scientist and Concerned Citizen Kelly Pike BARC Program Manager Jim Hudson BARC Executive Director The Bay Area Restoration Council extends its sincere appreciation to our partners at McMaster University and Mohawk College for enthusiastically taking on this project. The students developed the questions, conducted the surveys, analyzed the data and reported their findings. BARC would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Maureen Padden and her 3rd year environmental students Julia Shulist, Niloo Zamani, Sarah Vella and Tom Wiercioch from McMaster University and Mr. Michael McEleny and his 2nd year business students Dan Runzer, Jasmine Aitcheson, Ryan Gamble, Lyndsay Boyd and Shawn Sitter from Mohawk College. Special thanks go to Julia Shulist for writing and editing much of the final TSH report. This project is an excellent demonstration of the potential expertise and capacity in our post secondary institutions and a great example of how local environmental projects can be incorporated into the post secondary curriculum to benefit the students and the community. Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 2 TOWARD SAFE HARBOURS REPORT (2009/2010) Table of Contents Executive Summary 1. Introduction 1.1 Hamilton Harbour: An “Area of Concern” 1.2 Toward Safe Harbours Reports 2. Background Information 3. Methods 3.1 Limitations 4. Current Communications Practices/Channels 5. Summary of Findings 5.1 General Results 5.2 Awareness 5.3 Communication Modes 5.4 Opinions on Improvements of the Harbour 5.5 Opinions on Clean up Urgency 5.6 BARC Program Participation 5.7 News Sources 5.8 Age Comparison 5.9 Politician Survey 5.10 Educator Survey 6. Conclusions and Recommendations 6.1 Conclusions 6.2 Recommendations List of Appendices Appendix A – Acronyms Appendix B – McMaster Survey Appendix C – Mohawk Survey Appendix D – Politician Survey Appendix E – Educator Survey Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 3 Executive Summary To monitor and assess the progress of the Hamilton Harbour RAP, BARC has produced the Toward Safe Harbours report annually since 1994. This report was produced by a group of BARC staff and volunteers that make up the BARC Monitoring Committee. In keeping with the theme to reach farther and faster in 2009, the Monitoring Committee decided to survey the public to find out how well BARC is reaching the community. The committee collaborated with Mohawk College and McMaster University to complete surveys of certain sectors in our community. Surveys were completed at three festivals in the summer of 2009: The Festival of Friends, The Dundas Cactus Festival and The Sound of Music Festival in Burlington. Surveys were also completed at Jackson Square and Williams Coffee Pub on Pier 4. Although the sample for this survey was too small to be considered statistically significant, it does help us better understand how BARC is reaching the community. The following is a brief set of conclusions and recommendations gleaned from the surveys and analysis. Cleanup Efforts Many of the respondents were aware of Hamilton Harbour cleanup efforts, although not everyone knew how much progress had been made in recent years. Over half of the respondents were aware of improved waterfront trails and parks and many knew of swimming restrictions at Harbour beaches. Most people identified Randle Reef remediation and sewage treatment plant upgrades as the top two issues requiring immediate attention, perhaps because of recent newspaper coverage. The survey results suggest that more effort is needed to update the community on the status of the Remedial Action Plan (RAP). Younger people (<35 years of age) seemed to know less about the Harbour cleanup than those over 35. Local politicians that were surveyed were aware of the cleanup, but not all knew about the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan, and less than half were personally involved. Sources of Information Newspapers, internet, television and word-of-mouth were the sources of information for the majority of respondents. Younger people obtained news primarily from word-of-mouth, newspapers and television, in that order. BARC Events BARC promotes Harbour cleanup through public events such as the Marsh Volunteer Planting program and the Dragonboat races. BARC also delivers school programs including Stream of Dreams™, Yellow Fish Road™, and Classroom Mini- Marsh as well as the Adopt-a-Creek program, directed at the business sector. Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 4 Cleanup efforts are also communicated to the public through workshops, newsletters and annual reports. Approximately 40% of respondents were aware of BARC’s public events. Fewer than 20% of those surveyed were aware of BARC’s public school programs. Less than 5% of those surveyed had joined in any BARC event. Recommendations: Survey results indicate that our community needs more and different approaches to stay informed about Hamilton Harbour issues. These include finding more effective ways to use new and existing media, finding ways to extend BARC’s outreach to all parts of the Hamilton community, and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of BARC’s programs. Recommendation 1: Rebuild a communications committee to address issues raised by the surveys Changing how BARC communicates Several years ago, BARC had a Public Awareness Committee (BPAC) that was designed to promote the RAP to the general public. BPAC is currently inactive. It is time to rebuild this committee to address some of the communications disconnects identified in the survey. BARC occasionally uses newspapers to convey important messages, yet BARC’s prime communication channels are events, newsletters, annual reports, workshops and its website. This survey suggests that many members of the public gather news from newspapers, television, word of mouth, and the internet. Although BARC does reach many members of the public through its current channels, outreach may be more effective if the following steps were taken: • Greater use of social networks such as Facebook, • Work with newspapers to enhance BARC’s visibility, • Work with RAP partners to identify newsworthy opportunities for televised updates and, • Increase speaking engagements at community events and local clubs, high schools, colleges and universities. Recommendation 2: Extending outreach into the community: Reaching students Many of BARC’s programs are geared specifically toward elementary school children. Though BARC reaches thousands of students every year through its activities, there is always more work to be done. Suggestions include: • Ensuring that educators are represented on BARC’s Board, • Creating a student board member position to enhance connections with the student population. Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 5 Reaching the multicultural community The survey did not ask questions about cultural diversity, and it is not known if BARC’s communication programs are reaching Hamilton’s multicultural communities. What is known is that the city of Hamilton is culturally diverse. Approximately 25% of Hamilton’s residents were born outside Canada, and it is important that BARC’s Board, staff and communications programs reflect these demographics. In 2009, BARC partnered with the Sustainability Network to develop the Environment and Diversity Project. A Diversity Coordinator was hired to help BARC reach new audiences by developing and implementing strategies to better reflect and engage under-represented communities in the cleanup of Hamilton Harbour. Goals include: • Forming a Diversity Committee, • Developing and implementing programs to engage multicultural communities in BARC and the Harbour cleanup, • Creating a BARC board that is representative of the Hamilton community. Recommendation 3: Review and evaluate the effectiveness and the efficiency of BARC programs. Most of BARC’s resources are used to deliver programs such as the Stream of Dreams, Mini-Marsh, Yellow Fish Road, and Adopt-a-Creek. Tens of thousands of public school children have been made aware of the Harbour cleanup through BARC’s classroom programs. However, less than half of the adults surveyed were aware of these programs. The challenge is to find ways to measure the success of BARC’s programs and to increase program visibility through involvement and communications. Specific recommendations include: • Forming a Program Evaluation Committee, • Developing and implementing an evaluation process for measuring program success, • Improving program visibility to the public. Toward Safe Harbours – Public Awareness Survey 2009‐10 Page 6 1. Introduction 1.1 Hamilton Harbour: An “Area of Concern” Hamilton Harbour is one of 43 areas on the Great Lakes that were designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) by the International Joint Commission (IJC), a binational agency of the Governments of Canada and the United States. AOCs are those areas with the most environmental degradation, often expressed as Beneficial Use Impairments. Hamilton Harbour is the most polluted of the Canadian AOCs. To restore Hamilton