Emmett/Gem County Community Review Report Summary

Community Survey Results
A 66-item survey gauging Emmett residents’ perceptions about the quality of various aspects
of their community was distributed prior to, during, and after the on-site evaluations by
members of the home and visiting teams. The surveys were distributed to a diverse sample
of Emmett residents by community members, Americorps volunteers, and members of a
research team from the Psychology Department at Boise State University. To ensure a
diverse sample, surveys were distributed to students at the local high school, to business
owners, to shoppers at major grocery and retail outlets, and via a systematic random
sampling procedure (i.e., distributing a survey at every fifth house) in Emmett
neighborhoods. A total of 286 surveys were completed and returned.
The survey instrument was modeled on that used during Idaho Community Reviews in other
communities, including Hayden, Heyburn, Jerome, Kooskia, Priest River, Weiser, and Buhl.
Questions on the survey addressed a wide variety of community features, including
infrastructure, education, housing, neighborhood appearance, availability and quality of local
services, and employment. The survey items were grouped into conceptually distinct
categories (starting with streets and roads and ending with employment opportunities),
allowing for ease in responding and in analyzing the responses.
The respondents were asked to give a quality rating to each of the 66 community features
listed on the survey. A 7-point Likert-type scale response format was used, where
respondents could present their assessments of each community feature as “very poor” (a
rating of 1) to “very good” (a rating of 7), or anywhere in between (numbers between 1 and
7 represented varying degrees of perceived quality).
To better understand the demographics of the respondents, seven introductory questions
preceded the 66 community feature items on the survey. These questions asked respondents
to indicate: 1) their gender; 2) their age; 3) their ethnicity; 4) how many years they had lived
in the community; 5) whether they lived in Emmett or another area in Gem County; 6)
whether they commuted to work in another city or town; and 7) to what city or town they
commute to work in (if applicable). Overall responses to these questions are presented
below.
Gender: Surveys were completed by 157 women and girls (59.7% of the respondents who
indicated their gender) and 106 men and boys (40.3%). Twenty-three respondents (8.0% of
the total sample) did not indicate their gender.
Age: The average (median) age of the respondents was 42 years, with a range of ages from
12-90. Surveys were completed by 62 persons aged 12-18 years (24.7% of the respondents
who indicated their age), 127 adults aged 19-59 (50.6%), and 62 seniors aged 60-90 (24.7%).
Thirty-five respondents (12.2% of the total sample) did not indicate their age.
Race/Ethnicity: When asked to specify their race/ethnicity, 175 respondents (86.6% of the
respondents who indicated their race/ethnicity) reported being White. Sixteen respondents
(7.9%) reported being Hispanic/Latino, three (1.5%) reported being biracial, one (.5%)
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