Chugachmiut Regional Survey Project

Project Date: 2009
Project Manager:Beth McLaughlin
Client:Chugachmiut
Location: Port Graham, Nanwalek, Chenega Bay, Tatitlek and Seward

Project Description

Chugachmiut is a Tribal consortium representing seven Native communities in the Chugach region. The organization has grown to provide a broad range of health and social services to its members. Agnew::Beck, working as a joint venture with Ivan Moore Research and Dr. Lawrence Weiss of the Alaska Center for Public Policy, assisted Chugachmiut with conducting a comprehensive assessment of the service needs of the beneficiaries living in Chugachmiut's member villages.

The primary goal of the Chugachmiut Regional Survey Project was to gather feedback from Chugachmiut beneficiaries and assess their level of satisfaction with Chugachmiut services. This information was used to determine gaps in Chugachmiut services and improve service delivery in the Chugachmiut region. A  survey was designed to assess gaps in services; beneficiaries’ levels of understanding of the suite of services offered by Chugachmiut and levels of readiness for potential new programs and technologies; it also asked for suggestions of ways to improve services. Services provided through the Chugachmiut Health Division and Community, Family and Culture Division formed the primary focus of this project.  

The survey project collected feedback from four villages in the Chugachmiut region including:

• Nanwalek
• Port Graham
• Chenega Bay
• Tatitlek

Additionally, information was gathered from the hub community of Seward.

The Chugachmiut Regional Survey Project included three phases:

1. Input and Survey Creation
2. Data Collection and Beneficiary Database
3. Presentation of  Results and Feedback

Following the delivery of the survey tool in each community, the survey team aggregated the results into a spreadsheet that listed all results per community. Responses were summarized and interpreted in a 46 page summary report.  Eight themes or “Recommendations” were drawn from survey results. The survey team travelled with Chugachmiut
representatives to participating communities to gain additional input on the recommendations drawn from survey data. Community members provided suggestions on ways that Chugachmiut can improve services and provided context for interpreting the survey results. For each of the eight recommendations, community-specific feedback was recorded.

Chugachmiut Final Report