Survey offers Team Edwards opportunity to give feedback, improve community action plan

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Members of Team Edwards will have an opportunity for the next three weeks to provide feedback that can improve the base's community action plan, which is used to better take care of Airmen and their families.

Every two years the Air Force Community Assessment Survey is done to assess each base's community action plan. This year, the AFCAS runs from Jan. 25 through March 25.

"The Air Force Community Assessment Survey is a data collection tool that addresses questions about the wellness, the strength and the risk of our community," said Kimberly Shirley, Integrated Delivery System chairperson.

All active duty personnel and Department of Defense civilians were eligible for random selection to be asked to take the survey. Also, spouses of active-duty members will be randomly selected to take the survey. Servicemembers will receive an e-mail with a link to take the survey online and spouses will receive a hard copy of the survey in the mail.

"Participation is important because the issues discussed in this survey directly impact mission readiness," Mrs. Shirley said. "The data will be collected and then given to the integrated delivery system - which is a committee of all the helping agencies on the base - and put together a community action plan on how we can better serve our community."

The community assessment survey was implemented in 1988. The areas covered by the assessment are personal adjustment, family adjustment and community satisfaction.

"Never is the name of the participant associated with their survey in any way," Mrs. Shirley said. "In the case of the spouses who get them in the mail, they don't have to put their name on it or anything else that could be used to identify them."

"I think this is a way we can make positive change," Mrs. Shirley said. "We have to be able to get information from our community personnel, and they tell us how they feel and the integrated delivery system can come together as the helping agencies on base and put a plan to better serve the community into place based of the results they receive."

This survey gives the Air Force a tool to measure and understand what's going on in the base community.

"We all can sit back and say I don't like this or that about a particular location or about your job or your environment, but unless you express your opinion nobody will ever know how you feel," said Mrs. Shirley. "This survey is a perfect opportunity to do that anonymously."