Sport 4 Life Cochrane wants to ensure positive youth experiences through sport, recreation, and physical activity in Cochrane. 

To better understand the needs of the entire community, they have launched a Cochrane Sports and Physical Activity Survey.

All Cochrane area residents are invited to complete the five-minute surveys. In addition to having a say, they have a chance to win several Cochrane-based prizes.

Lea Weins, executive director of Sport 4 Life Cochrane, says it's the first time they've surveyed area residents to get a sense of experiences in sport and physical activity across the community.

"We want to make it as broadly representative as possible."

She says it's not just for people who have participated in sports, but families who have never participated in a formal program. They'd also like to hear from those whose youth have participated and dropped out to understand why they left the program. They want to hear about the great experiences, too.

New immigrants, people with young children, older youth, or people involved in sports but who don't necessarily have kids involved in sport are all encouraged to participate.

"The purpose of the survey will be to inform all of us who provide sport and physical activity programs and services so that we can do a better job of engaging everyone from all backgrounds throughout the community."

Identifying gaps could lead to some collective action.

It can also be used to fill in blanks not addressed by the town's open spaces master plan that doesn't speak to the programming and the recreation piece.

"So, I think this might start to fill in some of that information as well to help with planning even the Horse Creek expansion and different things like that."

"We're just excited to see where it goes and to provide this insight to the community."

To access the surveys, click here.