Communications Survey 2025

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The City of Niagara Falls conducted a community engagement survey to understand residents' communication preferences and improve how we share information. The survey ran from January 17 to February 3, 2025, and received 169 contributions. This report summarizes key findings and feedback from residents.

Stamford Centre Library Teen Lunch Bunch
Stamford Centre Library Pop Up

How We Engaged

  • Contest to encourage participation
  • Conversations with community members
  • Email campaign
  • Flyers at MacBain Community Centre
  • In-person & online survey
  • Niagara Falls Review weekly ad features
  • Three pop-up engagement sessions:
    • Stamford Centre Library
    • MacBain Community Centre
    • Stamford Centre Library Teen Lunch Bunch
  • Produced a video
  • Social media outreach
    • Combination of organic and paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)

  • 169 surveys completed

  • 2,396 email campaign recipients

  • 21.4k+ video views on Instagram

  • 3 pop-up engagement sessions

  • 15.3k X (Twitter) impressions

What We Heard

Age of Respondents
11% are under 18. 12.5% are aged 18-29. 30% are aged 30-49, 25.6% are aged 50-64 and 20% are aged 65 and older.
Preferred Communication Methods

Confidence in Using Online Platforms
  • 87% feel confident using the internet to find City information.
Most Common Reasons for Visiting the City Website
Social Media Engagement
Email Communication

Residents expressed the highest interest in receiving email updates about:

  • Emergency Alerts & Notifications
  • Community Festivals & Events
  • City Services & Resources
  • Parks, Trails & Amenities
Community Engagement Participation
Our Niagara Falls Plan Pop-Up Engagement
Community Decision Making Pop-Up Engagement
Barriers to Engagement
  • 34% cited a lack of project details as a barrier to participation.
  • 19% experience time constraints.
  • 11% noted accessibility concerns.
Text Message Alerts

72% are comfortable receiving texts for both emergencies and general updates.

How We Can Improve Communications
Your Comments

Next Steps

Your input will help us improve our communication with you and guide our 2025-2026 communications strategy. We will use this strategy to create an action plan for the next two years and continue to monitor and track progress against these objectives and priorities. Based on this feedback, the City of Niagara Falls will aim to:

Expand and enhance e-newsletter content by providing more frequent and detailed updates on city services, projects, and events.

Consider increasing the use of text messaging for emergency alerts and evaluate options for including general updates based on resident preferences.

Improve website content for easier navigation and accessibility, ensuring important updates and engagement opportunities are easy to find. In progress.

Provide clearer and more detailed project information by improving how we present development and infrastructure updates.

Enhance engagement opportunities by offering more diverse formats, including a mix of in-person and online, and alternative time slots for public meetings.

Raise awareness about the Let’s Talk Niagara Falls platform, ensuring more residents know about opportunities to provide input.

Address participation barriers by considering child-friendly engagement spaces, improving event accessibility, and increasing outreach efforts.

Ensure effective emergency communication efforts by exploring more formats to share updates.