Date: June 3, 2002

From: St. Vivian AMOS Project Core Team

To: St. Vivian Pastoral Council

Subject: AMOS Listening Project Spring 2002

This summary of the Listening Exercise is for your information. The core team will be reviewing the results to determine what actions are appropriate for our group.

Members of the St. Vivian AMOS core team conducted a listening exercise among a random sample of involved parishioners, i.e. parishioners who participate in one or more activities at St. Vivian Parish. This is not a statistically quantitative survey. The sample size is small (55). The respondents are more active in the parish than average. The respondents gave none, one or more voluntary responses about what they liked, disliked and thought could be better about their parish and their community. Finally, because the respondents knew the interviewers were members of a social justice organization in the parish, responses may be favorably biased to social justice activity.

Parish Likes

Strengths of the parish mentioned most often include our pastor Fr. Jack, the openness/ welcoming nature of the parish,the sense of community/fellowship, the school, and the good people.

Parish Concerns and Critiques

Most frequently mentioned as critique were environmental factors such as our inbreeding, lack of diversity, distance, and not reaching out to new parishioners. Second most often mentioned were temporal matters such as financial stability, future clerical staffing (pastor, assistant, deacon) and long range planning The third most frequently mentioned area was concern about youth programs. Multiple mentions were given to PSR kids not being included or treated differently and over-emphasis on winning in athletics

Parish Opportunities for Improvement

More outreach to African Americans was mentioned most frequently. Increased social justice was mentioned second most frequently. Improved social interaction via a variety of means was mentioned third most often. Several items in the categories of ecumenism, spiritual, temporal and school were mentioned once or twice each.

Finneytown (College Hill) Likes

The good location and safety/low crime rate were mentioned most often. The diversity of the neighborhoods and positive racial interactions were also frequently mentioned

Finneytown (College Hill) Concerns and Critiques

Most frequently mentioned was the status of the Finneytown school system. Second most frequently mentioned was the decline of the shopping at Brentwood Plaza (and in College Hill). The changing socio-economics of Finneytown was mentioned often. Crime and drugs were also a frequently mentioned concern. Multiple mentions were given to quality of life, neighborhood cleanliness and the challenge of subsidized housing

Person Cares About Most

Most frequently mentioned was family, followed by faith/religion and the parish school. Children, Finneytown schools, a strong parish, women's status, ecumenism, racial diversity and helping people received multiple mentions.

Respectfully submitted,

Dave Lennert