An expansive and topographically eclectic swath of land and water stretching 665 square miles that nearly half-a-million residents call home, much of Jefferson Parish’s strength as a community lies in its diversity across various demographics.
The parish’s geographically unique shape – one that includes municipalities located north, south, east, and west of a major city that’s not located in its footprint – makes it difficult to assess the current collective pulse of Jefferson and to collect and analyze vital data that will help shape policy for the betterment of the region.
Hoping to tackle that challenge head-on, the Jefferson Business Council partnered with the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, the Jefferson Community Foundation, and the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO) to author, distribute, collect and decipher JEFFERSON NOW, a first of its kind ‘Quality of Life’ survey.
“It’s imperative to benchmark where you are as a community,” said Philip Rebowe, Chairman of the Jefferson Business Council. “From our understanding, this had never been done in Jefferson Parish, so the time was right to do this.
“Though it preceded the fall elections, we didn’t want this survey to be a political piece or instrument as much as we wanted it to provide accurate, up-to-date information on where we’re at as a community – our neighborhoods, our schools, our business climate, our elected leaders and government,” Rebowe continued. “Our goal was that the findings could be used across a variety of sectors as an indicator on where we stand as a parish and what needs to be done to get to where we want to be as a community.”
With the help of a consulting service with expertise in this area, the survey was given to a representative sample of adult Jefferson Parish residents.
Highlights included:
• Overall, 75 percent of residents surveyed rated the Quality of Life in Jefferson Parish as good or excellent. When divided among age ranges, the most-pleased demographic was those in 65+ crowd, 86% of which rated their quality of life as good or excellent.
• In order, the Top 5 most important everyday issues in Jefferson Parish were: Public Safety/Crime Control, Levee and Flood Protection, Water and Air Quality, Drainage, and Quality of Schools.
• Among those in the 18-44 age range – traditionally a time in life in which people marry and rear children – 69% felt that Jefferson Parish was a quality location to raise a young family.
“While much of the feedback spoke positively to life here in Jefferson Parish – a response that we take a great deal of pride in – I think the survey also serves as a testament that we have to continue to push forward on a number of quality of life issues,” said Jerry Bologna, President and CEO of JEDCO. “The results of this exercise will help us narrow that focus and address those areas so that we can continue to deliver a desirable quality of life for ALL of our residents.”
Bologna went on to say that perhaps the most beneficial aspect of this inaugural report wasn’t the general, blanketed perspective of the parish community as a whole, but rather how thoughts and concerns were broken down based on a variety of demographics.
For instance, both Rebowe and Bologna addressed that while older, more-established residents of Jefferson Parish expected to still reside in the parish in the near future, a concerning percentage of 18-44-year-olds weren’t so certain, citing job/career advancement, affordable housing opportunities, and quality of public schools as reasons for pause and doubt.
Knowing that keeping Jefferson Parish an attractive and prosperous destination for the current and next generations of future residents is vital to the region’s overall health, the hope is that identifying those issues via this survey will result in immediate solutions.
“Jefferson Parish is an extremely diverse parish both in geography and socioeconomic standing,” Bologna said. “There are needs that are more important to certain groups than others, and so there is an effort to address every quality of life issue, but what we learned from the data collected is that a ‘One Size Fits All’ solution won’t be applicable…that it has to be a targeted approach on all fronts.
“In turn, those concentrated efforts to address the needs of a particular region of Jefferson Parish or a particular age group in Jefferson Parish will produce positive benefits for the quality of life for all our residents.”
Members of two committees within the Chamber have already begun using the data collected in the initial Quality of Life survey as a catalyst for change, according to Chamber President Ruth Lawson. In response to the aforementioned career opportunities for younger adult Jefferson Parish residents, the Young Professionals Committee and the Education and Workforce Development Committee have strategized ways to better connect education to industry – ensuring immediate and future waves of employees have the desired skillsets and focused training needed to meet the demands of employers seeking to fill the types of high-paying jobs that lead to the best and brightest staying in Jefferson Parish.
“The survey results are highly encouraging and serve as a testament to the tremendous impact of community and government working together to make Jefferson Parish the best place to live and conduct business,” Lawson said. “The feedback from residents reinforces the importance of the Jefferson Chamber’s unwavering commitment to stand strong on public policy and initiatives that foster growth and improve the quality of life in the region.”
