Thank you to everyone who filled out the mid-season survey. We had 82 responses, which is a fantastic snapshot of the farm community.
The survey told us a lot of amazing things about who uses the farm and what we are doing well and what we need to work on.
This year the participants were pretty evenly spread in terms of age ranges:
We were able to produce a map showing where farm users live (three quarters of participants opted in to provide their postal code, and we used the first 3 digits to create the map):
We got a lot of great quantitative information, which confirmed how important the farm is to the people who use it. Highlights included:
– “The farm is a vibrant and welcoming environment” – 94.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed
– “The farm in an important fixture in the local community” – 94.9% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed
– 40 participants reported seeing hospital patients use the farm every or almost every visit to the farm
Survey participants gave provided some wonderful qualitative feedback, including stories, praise, constructive criticism, and many expressions of thanks. Some highlights for us were:
– “A few people have stopped to offer tips and advice on specific plants/veggies that I’m growing. On one occasion, a lovely man suggested that I should consider growing a different type of bean. Next time I visited, there was a ziplock baggie with some sprouted beans ready to plant, and a nice note.”
– “this place is MAGICAL. i get so much joy from participating in this community and i try to share that joy with my friends and community. i love the farm <3”
– “I love it! I wish there was a similar place on every block of the city!”
– “I talk to my fellow plotters every time that I visit. They always share lots of knowledge and advice. Data Ram deserves a special mention. He has helped me so much with great advice and lots of kindness. He helped me get my plot ready for planting this spring. He’s the first person that I met at the garden when I was a very clueless newbie. He made me feel really welcome and his advice helped me have a great first growing season.”
– “I help people with directions, sharing hoses, and, when I can, offering cuttings of my plants. I’m pretty new to gardening, but I feel like I still have something to offer to the community of gardeners.”
– “I believe the CRUF is making an important contribution to the City of Halifax and do hope that the politicians and hospital administrators understand what this entity means to all of the citizens.”
One of the best things about the qualitative responses was that we were able to make word-clouds, where the key terms that appeared most frequently had larger font size.
Here’s one for “What is your motivation for being a part of Common Roots Urban Farm?” 
And here’s one for “what does social inclusion mean to you?”
SO COOL!
A huge THANK YOU to Advisory Committee member and evaluation guru Adrian Herod, for running the survey and compiling this amazing report!
Recent Comments