Ruby McMurren, with the Wrangell Cooperative Association and project director of the local Administration for Native Americans grant project, wanted to remind everybody in town that the "Wrangell Community Prioritization Survey" will come to a close on Friday, July 19. The survey is designed to get public input on the subjects of economic development, healthcare, and housing in Wrangell, and what people want to see improved or changed. The ANA grant project is designed to help stem the flow of outmigration of native citizens from the area, but McMurren said that anybody over the age of 10-years-old is welcome to take the survey.
"The survey is for all citizens, so all members of a household over the age of 10 can fill it out," she said. "The feedback of all community members are very important."
The survey was put together by a planning team consisting of several organizations, including SALT, Corvus, Rain Coast Data, ANA, the cooperative association, and the WCA's IGAP department. A workshop was held June 13 to gather public input on the community's priorities, to help better hone the survey, and the survey itself was released shortly afterwards. Once the survey closes, McMurren said that Meilani Schijvens of Rain Coast Data will take its results and combine them with another survey that was done back in 2016. The information gathered from this will be used to design a comprehensive action plan, which will outline projects and steps to take to improve housing, economic development, and healthcare in Wrangell. This action plan will be completed and released sometime in September of this year, McMurren said.
"The WCA does not want this action plan to sit on a shelf once this grant project is done," she said. "It is an action plan and we want to treat it as such."
Besides helping to create more accurate data, McMurren said that there are other incentives for taking the survey. Completing it will make one eligible for a number of prizes, such as 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles, $200 worth of free groceries, or for Wrangell youth between 10 and 18-years-old, an iPad. McMurren mentioned that not very many youth have filled out the survey, so they are hoping to get more responses from that category before the survey ends. Talea Massin, McMurren's assistant, also added that the majority of responses to the survey so far have been from women. They would like to see additional responses from men, as well.
To find the survey, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WrangellWCA. For questions, contact McMurren at ana.director@wrgtribe.org.
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