For the Wenatchee Downtown Association, understanding whether people feel they belong downtown meant asking a different question: Who feels like downtown is for them—and who gets to shape what happens there?
Rosa Pulido, Executive Director of the Wenatchee Downtown Association, first encountered the Belonging Barometer when Washington Main Street piloted the survey with a small group of Main Street organizations. Wenatchee was one of four organizations that participated.
“It really helped us just understand where our community is as a whole,” Pulido said.
As a new leader, Pulido wanted to understand how people experienced downtown and whether residents felt they had a meaningful role in shaping its future. She also wanted data to inform changes to the organization’s processes.
“I used it first to understand what people felt about downtown, especially being new in the role. I thought it was really important for me to understand how the community felt about it, especially when it comes to volunteer work or making decisions for the future of downtown.”
The survey helped the organization look beyond the people already engaged with the Downtown Association and consider whether its outreach reflected the broader community. Pulido noted that Wenatchee’s population is roughly split between Hispanic/Latino and white residents.
“We wanted to understand first who is our reach and our demographic … and then how do we, knowing what we know about the census and our community as a whole, incorporate everyone’s voices?”
The results arrived as the organization was undertaking a strategic planning process, allowing Pulido to connect what residents were saying about belonging with decisions about how the organization operated. The findings informed everything from programming and events and board-member onboarding to volunteer recruitment and internal organizational processes and how downtown is presented and promoted.
“It really did help with not just programming, but operations and how we do things internally,” Pulido said.
One of the biggest revelations was about how residents understood the organization itself. People appreciated downtown and recognized the changes happening there, but they didn’t always know that the Wenatchee Downtown Association and its volunteers were behind much of that work.
“Clearly, we are making an impact with the work that we’re doing. But I don’t think people understood that it was us or other volunteers.”
That insight prompted the organization to think differently about how it communicated its role and highlighted the contributions of its volunteers. The Barometer also surfaced another practical challenge: Residents perceived downtown as a place where spending money was often necessary to participate. Pulido said the organization heard that “downtowns are expensive, or it’s expensive to spend time downtown.”
In response, the organization began highlighting more free and low-cost ways to experience downtown, from public spaces and artwork to meeting neighbors and learning about local business owners.
“We do a lot more promotion of … the things that you can do for free downtown.” The organization also made physical changes to create more inviting places for people to gather. It revamped an underused plaza, added umbrellas and tables, increased green space and moved a bike rack to make the space more accessible. Pulido said the changes have contributed to more people spending time downtown.
“There’s a lot more people just hanging out downtown,” she said. “And people have commented a lot that they’re very grateful that we have more seating, or we have more flowers.”
The Barometer also helped provide momentum for an accessibility audit examining how people experience downtown, including people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired.
Wenatchee also used existing community partnerships to reach beyond its usual audience. The Downtown Association worked with regional nonprofits, the Chamber of Commerce, the city, the port authority and a local organization focused on Hispanic outreach. The bilingual survey was shared through email, newsletters, social media, QR-code flyers and community tabling events, where people could receive help accessing the survey.
For Pulido, the value of the Belonging Barometer isn’t just what it revealed the first time around. It’s the opportunity to measure change over time. After using the results to reshape the organization’s strategy and make changes downtown, she wants to ask the same questions again.
“I feel like it’s something you should measure every few years just to see if the work that you’re doing is actually working.”
And ultimately, that’s the question Pulido hopes the next survey can help answer: “Are we actually making a difference in belonging?”
Ready to get started?
Download the free Belonging Barometer Quick Start Guide and survey questions to begin measuring belonging in your community.
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