MUSKEGON, Mich. — The 2025 Community Life Survey, launched by Access Health in Muskegon, was recently released online, open to all Muskegon County residents over the age of 18.
Access Health Muskegon's COO, Samantha Cornell, says the survey aims to connect with residents to better align resources to support them.
“We understand that to solve a problem, you really have to deeply understand it,” Cornell said. “We took a lot of the resident feedback, folks across the county, to understand where their priorities are, and that helped guide us to understand where we should be looking within this survey.”
WATCH: Muskegon County launches Community Life Survey to address health and economic barriers
The survey is part of Muskegon SHIP (Social and Health Innovation Partnership), a community collaboration to address barriers to both work and wellness within the county.
Cornell says the survey is specifically centered around health, income, and navigating common community barriers.
Cornell explains, for example, “It's tough to get your kids to childcare if you don't have a car to get them there, so we spent a lot of time looking at the information and then looking at what those relationships are that we needed to better understand.”
In order to meet the needs of residents, Access Health is looking for more activity on the survey to help gather the necessary data-driven solutions for challenges in jobs, health, and economic opportunity throughout Muskegon County.
“When I left to come here, 876 people had taken the survey," Cornell said Sunday. "Our goal is 1750.”
Cornell explains the survey is anonymous, and takes about six minutes to complete.
However, the survey took about two years to prepare.
“Already, through some of the learnings that happened within the planning for the survey, and looking at existing data, there's action teams out there working on addressing some really critical barriers," Cornell said.
The heart behind the survey is Muskegon's Health and Economic Think Tank, informed by community-based Livability Lab teams, which Cornell describes as an annual 'take action' program for Muskegon residents to advocate for ongoing change.
“We should never, as an organization, or alongside partners, build solutions that are not deeply connected to the expertise and the voice of the community," Cornell said.
The survey opened at the end of August and runs through September 26th.
Cornell says the door to joining either Muskegon's Health and Economic Think Tank or a Livability Lab team is always open.
For more details on how to get involved, click here.
