In October 2008, the Alcohol Policy Network conducted a user survey to gauge our clients’ needs, expectations, along with gathering feedback on our current products and services. Information gathered from this process will be used to plan services for the following year.

According to our survey results, we provide resources to a wide range of sectors and regions with primary sectors being Public Health, staff from Non Government Organization’s, and FOCUS Community program staff. Areas represented are province wide with the majority of respondents from Central East (Toronto, GTA), East (Kingston, Ottawa) and South West (Windsor).

The main topical areas respondents were interested in the Alcohol Policy Network focusing on were alcohol use/misuse and related issues among post secondary students/youth and impaired driving laws and legislation.

Key highlights from the survey results included:

• The majority of respondents visit www.apolnet.ca monthly primarily to receive current information on alcohol issues;
• Secondary reasons to visit the website included to attain research for a paper, project, or story; to help develop policy; and to inquire about workshops or presentations on alcohol policy;
• The majority of respondents have recommended this website to other colleagues;
• Current news services (Issues to Watch) and the sample alcohol policy section were rated highly.

Key areas of improvement identified from the survey included:

• Continued updating and expansion of topical information packs (research-related web sections);
• Updating of broken links;
• More focus on Canadian research, reports, and legal decisions.

We thank those of you who participated in the survey and we look forward to utilizing the information gained to inform our future programming!

This is an extremely valuable organization that provides useful, practical services and tools. There isn’t anything else like it in Ontario and it is much needed! – Survey participant comment, 2008