Family opinion survey: our impact and what more we could do to help
This year Pasitos de Luz celebrates 24 years of supporting families with children that have special needs. During that time, we have significantly expanded the services that we provide, based on feedback from families, our Board and from specialists who visit us.
During our first few years, we were focussed on childcare, nutritional support and some rudimentary physiotherapy. Our reach was within Puerto Vallarta. In 2023, Pasitos de Luz supports families all across Puerto Vallarta and Banderas Bay (and beyond!), and our range of services includes physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, special education, childcare, nutritional support, outdoor activities, music, dance and much love.
As an organization grows, it is vital that it continues to meet the needs of the population that it serves, evolving as this population also evolves. With this in mind, in March we sent out an opinion survey to 35 Pasitos families, asking them 5 questions:
- How did you find out about Pasitos de Luz?
- Which of our services do you find particularly beneficial?
- How are we helping you to resolve the challenges faced by your family?
- Which additional help would you like from us?
- What do you most value about Pasitos de Luz?
We are pleased to share some of the findings of the survey with you.
In general, families find out about Pasitos de Luz through recommendations from fellow parents, from family members or neighbours. Many families also find out about us through social media, where we have a strong presence (we are on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter).
The services that the majority of the families highlighted in their responses as being particularly beneficial were physiotherapy, nutritional support and general childcare.
When Pasitos de Luz first started, a major part of our mission statement was to give parents a safe place to leave their kids so that they could go out to work. Many parents still mention this as one of their biggest challenges and as the major benefit of having access to Pasitos de Luz. This is especially important for single moms, who make up a significant proportion of our families. Families also come to us because they are concerned about the physical and emotional development of their son or daughter and simply can’t afford private therapy.
The question asking parents which additional help they would like from us yielded some very useful feedback. A number of parents said that they would like their children to receive more regular speech therapy at Pasitos de Luz. Others mentioned that a dedicated sensory room would be really helpful, especially for kids on the Autism Spectrum. We have taken on board these suggestions and will make them part of our plan 2023-24.
It was very gratifying to hear that many parents valued our commitment to providing the best possible level of care to their kids, and as well as the responsibility with which we undertake this commitment. All parents replied that they were hugely grateful that everything at Pasitos de Luz is provided free-of-charge.
We would like to thank all the families for taking the time to respond to our survey and for sharing their opinions with us.
