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6—1 Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan CHAPTER 6 - Community Needs Assessment and Public Input 6 Community Needs Assessment and Public Input Introduction One of the most important components of a master plan is to assess how residents feel about existing services and facilities, future needs, and other important considerations. Over the past year, County staff and UNC- Greensboro consultants worked to create a compendium of comments, remarks and opinions as part of a Community Needs Assessment or CNA. This CNA takes several forms, as will be identified and discussed below – from statistical sample surveys to informal comments and opinions expressed at community focus groups and public input sessions. As noted in Appendix 6-1, CNA’s are conducted for several reasons, including: 1. To provide county residents the opportunity to express their views regarding parks and recreation as part of community life; 2. To provide county residents the opportunity to express their views relative to satisfaction with existing park and recreations area, facilities, programs, and services; 3. To identify county residents’ interest regarding the implementation of new programs and services that meet the needs of the county and respond to new trends in parks and recreation; 4. To avoid unnecessary duplication and over -provision of programs and facilities; 5. To identify county residents’ interest in the develop- ment of future park and recreation areas and facilities; 6. To provide public officials with the information needed to prioritize future park and recreation area and facility development; 7. To justify capital improvements, quite often as part of a grant process; 8. To identify funding mechanisms that are acceptable for parks and recreation area and facility development; and 9. To foster ownership of park and recreation programs and facilities by county residents. The purpose of this assessment was to determine the leisure interests and preferences of Orange County residents. The information presented herein will help to determine the interests and preferences of residents regarding recreation programs and services, and will become a key building block for the master plan recommendations for park and recreation program and facility development for Orange County. In order to attempt to develop a robust assessment that included all components of the county popula- tion, a random-sample survey was augmented with other “Supplemental Surveys” to provide for a more comprehensive assessment. A. CNA and Public Outreach Methods 1. Youth Survey Young people are an important part of the constitu- ency for parks and recreation programs, so gaining insight into their opinions is appropriate and valid. To this end, in summer 2012, UNC Master of Public Administration intern, Renisha Howard, met with a series of County and Cooperative Extension summer camp counselors and campers to ask their thoughts about our needs and existing programs. The full report on the 2012 Youth Parks and Recreation Survey may be found as Appendix 6-2 to this document. 65