On Thursday 9 June 2016, the Logan City Council was awarded the Parks & Leisure Australia (QLD) Award of Excellence for Research Project for the 'Active Logan Participation Study'.
The award acknowledges outstanding research achievement by a group, who have made a significant contribution to the parks and leisure industry through expanded knowledge enhancement promoting the benefits or importance of the parks and leisure sector in Australian society.
The PLA Award of Excellence, is great recognition of the calibre and expertise of the Logan City Council leading the way in Local Government through the development and delivery of this innovative research project. The award is also a great recognition of AEC’s hard work and ingenuity in developing research methodologies which are innovative and original, are of best practice within the industry, are sustainable, are measurable and achieve objectives.
Logan City Council commissioned the research to assess sport, recreation and physical activity participation levels across residents in the City. The findings from the research were to inform priority areas and aspirational participation targets outlined within Council's 15 year Active Logan Strategy. The strategy would ensure infrastructure and programs meet community needs and increase participation.
AEC utilised a custom-made approach and expanded the methodology to include a mixed-mode survey approach to cater to the diverse demographic profile of the Logan City Council. The first approach was to utilise telephone surveys as well as face-to-face and online surveys to ensure a representative sampling of the population and to ensure results were statistically valid. We also utilised social media to promote the survey and expand our reach to the target audience.
The next step was to further validate the quantitative survey results by undertaking in-depth consultations with key selected stakeholders and focus group sessions with key community groups to investigate in greater detail and refine the views and opinions of residents regarding sports and recreation activities, the key motivators for and barriers towards participation in sports and recreation activities.
We then went one step further and ensured AEC’s approach was carefully crafted for comparative analysis with pre-existing national studies. Our goal was to provide additional context to the findings by benchmarking the survey results against nationally available data on sport, recreation and physical activity participation levels.
The findings of the 'Active Logan Participation Study' provides the Council with critical insight into the levels and drivers for participation in sport, recreation and physical activity by Logan residents. The innovative and award winning 'Active Logan Participation Study' is a key component in informing Council with its development of a long‐term vision ‐ being the Active Logan Strategy.
The study is now running for the national Parks & Leisure Australia Award of Excellence for Research Project to be announced in September 2016….stay tuned!