The 11th LIFE in Marathon County Report project is resending the LIFE Survey to 2100 randomly selected households in Marathon County. The survey is being conducted by UW-River Falls Survey Research Center.

“We strongly encourage people who receive the survey to fill it out and return it,” said Karen Katz, Chair of the LIFE Committee. “The response to the first wave of mailing was not as high as we would like, and we are hopeful people will respond to this second mailing if they didn’t respond to the first.”

The survey garners Marathon County resident’s opinions on a variety of topics addressing the quality of life in Marathon County. It includes a variety of questions on topics such as health insurance coverage, transportation concerns, and what services residents value in our community.

The survey is a critical part of the LIFE report, a data driven report of over 65 indicators. A good survey response rate is critical to ensure accurate results for the report and provides information and data that isn’t available from other sources.

The LIFE in Marathon County report is possible thanks to 17 funding partners who join together with United Way to present indicators covering seven categories ranging from basic needs, health, safety, education, aging, and the environment to our economic climate. Indicators drill down to specific issues. For example, in the Basic Needs section data on hunger, homelessness and access to transportation is presented. The report is widely used by business leaders, government offices, and non-profit organizations in planning, grant writing, and grant making.

The LIFE Report has been published every other year since 1997 by the LIFE Steering Committee. The next report, 2017–2019, will be the project’s 11th report and celebrates 22 years of influencing change in the community and will be released in January 2018. The current edition of the report is available on line at www.unitedwaymc.org. United Way serves as the fiscal agency for this community project.