KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A team of roughly 30 survey interviewers are logging miles all over Kansas City this week and likely for the rest of October, collecting information for the KC Community Survey, covering information about crime, economic resources, social cohesion, and other services. Expert Interviewer Janese Williams signed up to do the surveys to give people a voice. "People in their neighborhoods know what their problems are and they even know what their solutions are but they need to get those solutions into the hands of individuals who can impact change and that's what this survey does," Williams said. Those roughly 30-minute conversations are the key to getting information to elected leaders or grant writers who can create or fund programs and improvements community members could be looking for. "Everybody feels like they have a seat at the table and that's what's been really exciting," said Principal Investigator Dr. Maja Kotlaja. "If someone has a problem, who do they go to? Do they get a resolution for that problem?" Interviewers are four days into their work, and they've already logged 100 responses. But the initial survey period will likely be extended through the end of October to make sure that there are 800 responses spread out over 40 neighborhoods so there's a large enough sample to be representative of Kansas City and to make it comparable to other cities. "We have a lot of assumptions of what neighborhoods look like from the outside looking in," said Expert Interviewer Cecil Wattree. "But as we continue to walk door to door, you get a perception of how close-knit they are, how much they communicate, how they watch after each other. Just being able to sit there and watch someone while you're interviewing them, wave at the neighbor down the street, lets me know how much the communicate and stay in close contact with each other." Wattree says those perceptions can be tested and maybe even changed by talking to people in a way that Kotlaja says has never happened in Kansas City before. The survey will help determine the efficacy of Violence Prevention Fund investments around Kansas City over five years. "We, often times, complain about different things that are happening but this is an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is," Williams said. The public website with the survey results will be live in January.