A big thank you to those of you who attended the meeting of the Community Survey Task Force last night — I think we made some real progress on figuring out what the short and long-term goals of this project should be.
For those of you who were not able to make it, we have settled on completing two surveys: one smaller survey focused on bias and discrimination in the LGBT community in Anchorage — the Anchorage Discrimination Survey, to be completed in the next year — and a far more expansive Alaska LGBT Community Statewide Survey of the LGBT community to occur over a longer timeline. There is going to be plenty of room for different levels of involvement moving forward, and I am really excited to work both with full-blown members of the Task Force and individuals who will be joining us on a consulting basis.
We were fortunate to have Brad Myrstol and Khristy Parker of UAA Justice Center join us last night and ask some hard questions about what the project needs to look like — and what our priorities should be — moving forward. It has become clear that in order to have usable data by the spring of 2011, work on the Anchorage Discrimination Survey simply cannot begin soon enough. Therefore we will continue having Task Force meetings on roughly a monthly basis while also having a research and methodology team start on the survey within the next week. Anyone who is interested in participating in the survey design and outreach to respondents is encouraged to attend the meeting.
The Anchorage Discrimination Survey Research and Methodology team will meet:
Monday, October 4
6:00-7:30 PM
1057 West Fireweed Lane
First floor conference room
The wider Task Force will meet again later in October, details to follow.
Again, thank you all for your support and involvement in this project. Your work on this really will make a difference!
More details on discussion at last night’s meeting will follow in the next couple of days.
