VOLUNTEERS TO EMBARK ON SURVEY IN PRECINCTS

Residents in four Cape Girardeau school neighborhoods shouldn't be surprised to find volunteers on their doorsteps with surveys in hand Saturday.

Volunteers will hit the streets for Caring Communities' asset-mapping survey in the May Greene, Washington, Franklin and Jefferson school neighborhoods.

"We'll be asking residents about their interests, what some of their experiences are, to get an idea of what their abilities are and what their talents are," said Jo Boyer, executive coordinator of Caring Communities.

"We're going to ask them if they've been involved in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or if they've had any experience with neighborhood activities. We're going to ask them who they would go to in their neighborhoods if there were a problem so we can find out who some of the leaders in the neighborhood are. We're going to ask them what they see good that's good about the schools."

Volunteers will meet at 8 a.m. at May Greene Elementary for breakfast and training. The morning survey session will begin at 9 a.m. in the May Greene and Jefferson schools neighborhoods.

Lunch and training for the afternoon session will begin at noon at Franklin Elementary School, and surveys will begin at 1 p.m. in the Franklin and Washington schools neighborhoods.

Volunteers may sign up for one or both sessions. As an incentive, Caring Communities will donate $20 per volunteer per session to a charity or non-profit group of the volunteer's choice, Boyer said.

She's hoping about 200 people will turn out for the surveys.

The surveys, which should take about five minutes to complete, will concentrate on each neighborhood's strengths, Boyer said.

"We want this all to be positive, and that's hard to do sometimes. People want to talk about the bad things," she said. "We're going to build on this, so that's why it's going to be positive."

The information will be used to help tailor the Caring Communities program to meet the needs in each school. Caring Communities is an effort to meet children's and families needs by concentrating services within the school.

Volunteers will start compiling survey data next week, she said, "and of course we'll be willing to share with whoever would like to be involved."

The "Walk the Walk" asset-mapping project was originally scheduled for December, but was canceled because of inclement weather.