2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

AUTHORS: Amy Bousman, Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks; Susan Steffan, Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks

ABSTRACT: Participant feedback is critical to understand the impact R3 programs are having on participants; therefore, the greater goal of recruiting, retaining, or reactivating participants. We typically collect this feedback through formal, quantitative surveys. However, it is increasingly difficult to get participant feedback due to survey fatigue and program logistics (e.g., outdoor setting, language barriers, working with children, etc.). We will discuss the pragmatic, often qualitative, methods we used to collect participant feedback for programs that targeted underserved and nontraditional communities such as refugees and Indigenous peoples. We hope you can learn from our successful (and not-so-successful) efforts to maintain and strengthen these positive relationships while still capturing the much-needed participant feedback.