DMFS

• DMFS Update
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
• Training
  • Presentations and Training
• Funding Central
• MFSP Participant Survey
• Research
• C/MFRCs In Focus
  • Submission Guidelines
• Resources for C/MFRCs
  • Children's Deployment Support Program
  • Key Reference Documents
  • Forms
  • MFRC Board Orientation and Training Kit
  • C/MFRC Contact List
  • MFSP Logos
  • Second Language Training
  • Policies and Standards
  • Publications
  • Research
  • Deployment Support Database
  • Family Violence Prevention and Awareness
• Useful Links

Is your community suffering from survey fatigue? Try these tips!

Each year, Canadian/Military Family Resource Centres (C/MFRCs) and a variety of other community organizations ask Canadian Forces (CF) families for their feedback about local services. In the midst of Community Needs Assessments, Your-Say surveys, and lots of other assessment tools, sometimes the Military Family Services Program (MFSP) Participant Survey can get a bit lost in the shuffle.

Director Military Family Services (DMFS) would like to remind all C/MFRCs about why the MFSP Participant Survey is important, and offer some helpful tips for survey success. Thanks to the Greenwood MFRC staff for their suggestions!

• Think about when and where you will distribute the Survey in advance, and make it available at a number of different locations and events. Make sure you have copies of the Survey on hand at the Reception Desk, and incorporate the Survey into activities and events throughout the 4 January – 4 March 2011 distribution period;
• Advertise! Make sure the posters are displayed in prominent areas of your Centre. Include the poster on the DMFS website in your MFRC newsletter, base newspaper, and on your FamilyForce website;
• Spread the word about the importance of the MFSP Participant Survey among your C/MFRC staff, and the families you serve. We need families’ feedback to strengthen the MFSP, both locally and nationally;
• Provide your C/MFRC staff with incentive to promote the Survey. Last year, Greenwood MFRC Executive Director Margaret Reid used this tactic, and made the Survey a fun activity instead of an additional task. When the staff reached their goal, Margaret surprised them with treats to congratulate them on their success, and say thank you; and
• Thank families for their participation, and demonstrate how you use the results of the Survey to make positive changes at your Centre. Have you added an activity to your Centre’s programming as a result of feedback you received? Let families know you make changes based on the results: their comments are valuable and their voices are heard.

The 2011 MFSP Participant Survey launches in January 2011, and boxes containing the Surveys and supporting materials will arrive at each Centre in December 2010. DMFS asks that as you review the materials, and take some time to plan how your C/MFRC will maximize your community’s participation in this year’s Survey.