Parishes can experience a shift that can either release new energy or else paralyze its members when changes occur. It is important at this time of restructuring in the Diocese of Toledo to engage parishioners so as to release the Spirit’s energy and increase the vitality of the parish community as it adjusts to changes.

Announcing the Parish Vitality Assessment Tool

To address the importance of planning in and for the parish, a tool has been created to help Pastors/Pastoral Leaders, Pastoral Councils and staffs of parishes in the Diocese of Toledo. Following is a short description of the process.

The Parish Vitality Assessment is bi-level:

Parishioner Survey: seeks information about Christian formation, social concerns, worship, parish life, evangelization, ecumenism, and stewardship as well as parish facilities and demographics of the respondents. The sixty-four questions are designed to obtain information about the parishioner’s perceptions about their parish.

Parish Staff Survey: gathers information about what is being done in the above seven areas plus administration, facilities, vision and mission and financial planning. The responses to this survey help paint the picture of what is actually being offered in the parish.

Results of the Surveys

Parishioner data is collected and entered, at the parish, into an Excel spreadsheet program designed to generate information about responses, both overall and by area. Cross tabulation can be done to check demographic profiles with responses. The responses from the staff survey provide a contrast between perceptions and the actual picture.

Peer Review Group

The data from the parishioners survey and the Parish Staff responses are made available to a Peer Review Group. The Peer Review Group is composed of three persons: a Pastor or Pastoral Leader, a pastoral staff person and an involved but non-paid parishioner from other parishes in the Diocese who are trained to read the results. From the parish data collected, the Group would provide observations about the strengths of the parish and suggest recommendations for future planning to meet areas of need or concern. This report would be presented to the Pastor/Pastoral Leader, Pastoral Council. and Pastoral Staff

From the report, the Pastor/Pastoral Leader, the Pastoral Council and the staff can focus on the areas surfaced from the assessment for creating pastoral plans for the future.

The following is an order form for the materials needed to introduce the Parish Vitality Assessment into your parish. The questionnaires, survey and Excel program are available from the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Office.

How Does a Parish go about implementing the PVA?

A Pastor/Pastoral Leader or other leadership persons in a parish may become aware that the parish has needs that are yet unmet or ideas and dreams that are not yet fulfilled. This may come about through conversations, outright requests, or sometimes just the vague sense that more could be done for and with people to help them fully realize their potential as followers of Christ in the world.

The Parish Vitality Assessment is a tool to help parishes focus on the unmet needs and the unrealized dreams of parishioners.

To unearth those unmet needs and unrealized dreams, the Pastor/Pastoral Leader and/or a Pastoral Council can contact the Secretariat for Pastoral Leadership and inquire about the Parish Vitality Assessment tool. Once they have decided to use the tool, they make a timeline for the initiation of the tool until its completion and feedback. Important dates to consider include the following:

Timeline

• Date when announcements from the pulpit and through the bulletin and newsletter would be made
• Date when survey would actually be given to parishioners (printed surveys are available in English and Spanish from the Diocese at no cost)
• Date when surveys are to be returned
• Date when data entry from the surveys would be completed and sent to Peer Review Group
• Date when Peer Review Group would report data analysis and recommendations

When these dates have been determined, they should be sent to Dan Demski in the Secretariat for Pastoral Leadership so that he can send the appropriate number of surveys and make contact with the three-member Peer Review Group for the parish.

The Pastor/Pastoral Leader and the Pastoral Council also need to determine the best way to disseminate the surveys in their parish:

Disseminating the surveys

- Give the survey to adult members of the congregation at all Masses on a given weekend to be completed in church, after church at coffee and doughnuts, or returned the next week at Mass.

This method produces the highest return rate of surveys given out. However, it also gives a very one-sided response since it targets primarily those parishioners who are already involved, at least through attendance at Sunday Mass. The Pastoral Council could also include groups not represented in the returns by having focus or listening sessions that would target underrepresented groups, or by randomly selecting households to fill out the survey by telephone.

- Send the survey to every registered parishioner in the parish.

This method allows for the most diverse response in that even those who may not attend Mass regularly or be involved in any other ministry in the parish may take the time to fill out the survey and return it, giving a broader sense of people’s needs and how the parish is responding to them. A negative aspect of this method is that the number of returns are usually quite low and thus it makes it difficult to determine if the responses are statistically significant. One way of getting a larger return is to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with the survey.

- Send the survey to randomly selected parishioners.

This again may not yield high numbers of responses, but if people realize that they have been selected and that their response is thus very important, they may better respond.

There is no one “best” way. Each parish needs to choose the manner of distributing the survey in a way that gives the Council the best information.

Communications

Informing the parishioners about the survey, its significance, and the use of the results is important for full participation. To this end, announcements from the pulpit and more information in the bulletin or newsletter two - four weeks in advance of distributing the survey is crucial. For your assistance, several sample pulpit and bulletin announcements are included with this packet.

On-going communication of where in the process the survey is and when the results and recommendations are given keeps the parishioners aware of the implications of the Vitality Assessment. The Peer Review Group can help the Council determine what parts of the results are most helpful for people to know and what might cause “data shock” that would not be helpful. Then, once the Council begins to work with the recommendations and material, on-going reporting also keeps people abreast of the parish’s growing vitality.

Data entry

When the surveys are being or have been returned, data entry can begin. The data spreadsheet designed to be used with the Parish Vitality Assessment is in Excel format. The Excel program must be already installed on the computer used for the data entry. The spreadsheet can be sent to the parish on either floppy disk or CD. When the spreadsheet has been installed, one or more people can begin the task of taking each survey and recording the responses. A data entry guide is included with the disk. (Note: the data entry is simple enough that high school students who need service hours or retired individuals who have the time can be engaged in doing this.)

When the data entry is complete, copies should be sent, along with the Parish Information Questionnaire, to the contact person for the Peer Review Group (see below).

Parish Information Questionnaire

While the survey is being announced and completed by parishioners, the Pastor/Pastoral Leader and staff members complete the Parish Information Questionnaire. This is a survey of all of the ministries, services and activities that are actually done in and by the parish. It should be noted that these are parish-sponsored ministries, services and activities, not those of an individual who is fulfilling his or her baptismal commitment. This questionnaire is included with the data results and sent to the Peer Review Group that has been assigned to the parish.

This comprehensive questionnaire is designed so that different sections can be given to various individuals who bear the responsibility for the areas. Once completed, it should give a comprehensive view of the ministries, services and activities already being done in and by the parish.

Role of Peer Review Group

A trained three person Peer Review Group is assigned to each parish undertaking the Parish Vitality Assessment process. The Group usually has a Pastor/Pastoral Leader/Associate Pastor, a parish staff person and an involved parishioner. These individuals are from various parishes and, if possible, from a parish similar in size or make-up to the parish undertaking the survey process. They are trained in examining the raw data and in reviewing the material to make practical recommendations. These sets of “outside eyes” allows the results to be seen without bias and with a sense of where strengths and areas for improvement lie.

One member of the Peer Review Group will be designated the “contact person” and will be responsible for communicating with the appropriate parish “contact person.” After the Group members have had time to review the material and to meet to prepare the analysis and the recommendations, they meet with the Pastor/Pastoral Leader and the Pastoral Council. A Pastor/Pastoral Leader may also decide to have pastoral staff members attend the meeting as well. Once the material has been given to the parish, it is the responsibility of the Pastor/Pastoral Leader and Pastoral Council to determine the feasibility of the recommendations and to begin the planning process, working from the information the Parish Vitality Assessment has provided.

Parish Vitality Order Form

Parish Information Questionnaire Sample 1

Parish Information Questionnaire Sample 2

Parishioner Questionnaire Sample 1

Parishioner Questionnaire Sample 2

Materials © June 2004 Diocese of Toledo