Parks, Trails & Recreation Master Plan

COMMUNICATIONS Minority Populations were asked to share what was the best means for them to receive communications and information from the City of Shakopee about parks and trails. And to indicate what are preferred ways for them to communicate their own concerns, ideas, and comments back to the City Parks and Trails. The following are preferred means by which participants would like to receive, or give, communications with the Parks Department: » » Most popular responses were Email and Facebook. Particularly, for events people felt Facebook was a good choice. The internet was a good choice in all its many facets: Instagram; Google; to create websites for volunteering. Web browsers provide a level of translation that helps non-English speakers navigate. Telephone is still good for some participants. » » Meet and Greets could be arranged at other parks throughout the system. » » Create a way to provide feedback such as a suggestion box, online focus group, and/ or website - provide translation so people know where to go/how to use. » » Those who were immigrants or refugees readily commented they would like to receive information in other languages, particularly in the newsletter. Specifically, it was suggested that the Shakopee Messenger could include at least, a short section in languages other than English, which are commonly spoken by immigrants in Shakopee. » » Russian participants indicated in Russian or Romanian The responses given held many commonalities across the groups.

» » Make the park hotline number visible at parks with translations. It was added that the hotline should allow for leaving messages in languages other than English. There are services available for hire that assist with translations if the City needs assistance with this. And it follows; it would potentially allow persons to get a reply in the languages of the messages left. » » A few groups mentioned that they desired resources that would let them know what amenities were at which parks that they weren’t familiar with, as well as the location of the park. A number of the recommendations in the communications section highlight a typical problem of park agencies trying to communicate with under- represented groups - there often are resources developed that these groups desire, they are just unaware of them. The city should continue to find ways to alert these populations to the resources already developed. Translations around key messages would help. Developing communication materials that rely on graphics and imagery over text heavy materials, could help breakdown the communication barrier. The city already has a web page for each park and a parks map that shows what amenities are available at which parks - they just need to find a way to effectively communicate to these under-represented groups.

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Needs Assessment

SHAKOPEE PARKS, TRAILS, AND RECREATION MASTER PLAN | NEEDS ASSESSMENT 80