WIPPS
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service will launch a community survey on Tuesday in Marathon and Lincoln Counties after last summer’s heated debate over the “community for all” resolution.
Executive Director Eric Giordano says they want to find a way to thread the needle between those who were against the issue and supporters, saying there has to be a middle ground. “I think the truth is we all sort of want to move forward around some of these issues, right? We don’t want to be dwelling on the negativity. Whatever side of the issue you were on.
“Our hypothesis is this- people, whether in urban or rural, probably aren’t as racist as some people think we are, and they’re definitely are people who feel they aren’t as welcome. We just want to know what people feel and think about the community,” he added.
He knows the Lincoln and Marathon County Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Welcomeness Study won’t be the cure-all for the issues that came out of last year’s often partisan debate, but it should at least be a starting point to more productive dialogs. He says learning is also a big part of the survey, particularly finding out what’s actually going on in the community and why people feel the way they do on the issues.
“Then if there is some data that emerges from looking into this then we can provide that to the community [for use] in a way that hopefully can be constructive,” said Giordano.
The debate over the issue brought national attention including a series of stories from the New York Times. The resolution ultimately failed in August and was never brought back. The group that crafted it, the county’s Diversity Affairs Commission, has since been disbanded by a vote of Supervisors during their organizational meeting last month.
WIPPS will be mailing paper copies of the survey to 10,000 randomly selected homes in Lincoln and Marathon Counties. There is also an option to take the survey online.
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