In the coming months, you may get a phone call asking you to participate in a health survey. This may be the sort of thing that you normally politely decline, but this isn’t just any survey. It’s the Coachella Valley Community Health Survey, and it’s essential to improving health in our region. Below are some of the details about the survey; we hope that you will find this information compelling enough to take the call.

Who Conducts the Survey? The Community Health Survey is conducted by HARC (Health Assessment and Research for Communities), a nonprofit research organization located in Palm Desert. The survey is conducted every three years and has been taking place for over a decade. Calls will come from HARC’s partner, Kent State University (so they will not be from a 760 area code).

Who Will Get the Call? Community members are randomly selected to participate in the survey; anyone with a phone (cell or landline) could be called. We need more than 2,500 people to take the call and share their stories. We want to hear from everyone who lives here one month or more per year, including snowbirds and migrant farmworkers along with permanent residents.

What Happens with the Data? Once the phone calls are complete, HARC analyzes the data and prepares a written report of the findings. The report and a searchable database are freely available to the public at www.HARCdata.org. It is very important to note that individual answers are confidential. HARC’s data tells a story about our entire community, not any one person in particular—so your responses are safe with us.

Who Uses the Data? The data is provided back to the community for free so that everyone can access it. HARC’s data is used by a wealth of local organizations, including the cities, hospitals, clinics, and nonprofit organizations. Here are a few examples of how organizations have used HARC’s data to provide services in the Valley:

Desert AIDS Project uses HARC’s HIV testing data to get funds to provide free HIV testing for everyone.
Local senior centers, including Mizell and Joslyn Center, use HARC’s food insecurity data to obtain funds to provide home-delivered meals for low-income, homebound seniors.
Shelter from the Storm, the Coachella Valley’s only domestic violence services provider, uses HARC’s children’s data to get funding to support their onsite schools for children.

Is There Anything in it for Me? The call should only take about 20 minutes of your time, and as a bonus, every week one participant will receive a $100 Visa card. The information gathered on this survey helps our community immensely, so please take the call—for your community and your health.

Who Supports this Survey? This survey is made possible by funding from the cities of Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs; Desert AIDS Project; Desert Care Network: Desert Regional Medical Center and JFK Memorial Hospital; Desert Healthcare District; Eisenhower Health; First 5 Riverside; IEHP; RAP Foundation, RUHS – Behavioral Health and Public Health; and generous private donors.

For questions, please visit www.HARCdata.org/FAQ or call HARC at (760) 404.1945.