The Portage Community Revitalization Cooperation (PCRC) is beginning to analyze the data from their social connections survey done last month. 

The organization asked Portagers questions regarding their social life and how it relates to their health. Local Immigration Partnership Coordinator Mitch Tilk says the main idea behind this survey was to help newcomers build relationships in the city.

Tilk believes they were able to get a substantial sample size.

"We're close to 250 right now. I'm not a statistician but I think it's enough for us to start to draw some different correlations," Tilk explains. "We're happy with the numbers."

Tilk says they haven't fully dove into all the information they've gathered but he outlines his initial impressions.

"Just looking over it briefly, I've noticed some good trends about the number of connections people are making," Tilk continues. "I think everybody that answered does have friends in Portage la Prairie. That's nice to know people feel like they have at least some friends in Portage, and that's important. That's what can keep people here, the connections that they make."

The PCRC will be doing their gift card draw for those who participated in the survey very soon, and Tilk says they will actually have more prizes than they anticipated.

"We will be making an announcement shortly about the winners of the draw. Some eagle-eyed viewers of PortageOnline helpfully pointed out that there was a mistake at the end of the survey that said we were offering three $100 gift cards. We changed that to one $500 gift card but forgot to update it. So, instead, we will do one $500 gift card and three $100 gift cards for the runners-up. Stay tuned for a video showing the winners of that @portagecrc on Facebook."

With the success of this survey, Tilk says they plan to put together more in the future.

"There will be another public survey coming out around child care and some of the needs that we're expecting to happen with these new ready-to-move facilities being implemented," Tilk shares. "Stay tuned for that if you really love taking surveys."

Tilk thanks the community of Portage for their input on this matter.

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