6.2 Community Partner Interview Process & Questions
Notes to make at the beginning of interview:
- First, thank them for their time
- Let them know that the information they provide will be used only in summary form; individual responses will be kept confidential and will not be linked with any other data
- They will have a chance to review and edit a summary of this interview before it is used
- Information will be used along with data gathered from kitchen table talks and our community inventory for use in the development of tools and resources
Give an overview of the project:
We define social and economic inclusion as both a process and a goal:
- As a process, it welcomes individuals and groups who have been left out of the planning, decision-making and policy development processes in their communities.
- As a goal, it empowers people by offering them opportunities, resources and supports to promote participation in their communities.
Heath Canada has funded the Social and Economic Inclusion project to study issues of inclusion or isolation in our community. In the Central West region (which includes Kitchener-Waterloo, Brant, Cambridge and North Dumfries) we are looking at how social and economic inclusion affects two particular age groups, youth (ages 16-24) and seniors (aged 55+). The project will be completed in April of 2004.
You’ve received a copy of our local objectives (have a copy ready to review if necessary).
What questions do you have at this point?
Questions about them and their organization: | |
1. | What is your role in the organization? |
2. | Get a description of the organization and service provision. |
3. | Does this org serve: Youth? Seniors? Both? |
4. | How are the issues of “social and economic inclusion” relevant to you and your organization? |
5. | Does your organization have policies/rules and/or practices where seniors, youth or both are included in or excluded from organizational decision making? Get details on this. |
6. | Does your organization have specific mandates, services or programs to address issues of isolation or related needs? |
7. | What barriers exist for your current or potential clients with participating in your organization? What success has your organization had with overcoming these barriers and/or increasing inclusion? How do you serve people who don’t easily participate? |
8. | What could help you better understand what is happening with seniors and/or youth in your community? |
9. | It is expected that what is learned from the informal discussions and other information gathered in the next few months will help us create resources or tools that could help local community action. What tools or resources do you use now? What tools or resources would you find helpful? |
10. | Do you have information or data that could be shared with this project? For example, program statistics, studies, planning or audit tools? If your organization is currently doing something related to inclusion/exclusion could you share what you learn with the larger learning partner network of this project (reports/documents/tools – maybe something to share at our community forum in the fall)? |
Questions about the community | |
11. | In your experience, are exclusion and/or isolation an issue for seniors and/or youth? How? Why? What do you think contributes to this? |
12. | In your experience, is there a difference between rural and urban residents in terms of their exclusion and/or isolation in the communities? How? Why? What do you think contributes to this? |
13. | Who are the key people or organizations that could help make things more inclusive for seniors and/or youth? How could they make these changes? |
14. | What does the community do well for seniors and/or youth? What does the community not do well for seniors and/or youth? How do you think the community could be strengthened or reduce its barriers so that seniors and/or youth are more included? What strategies do you think are effective? |
15. | Do you know of other projects or initiatives or action strategies regarding inclusion that are happening in your community? Who could we contact to find out more? |
Questions about Seniors and/or Youth | |
16. | In your experience, what do seniors and/or youth say they want to be different in the community for them? |
17. | How do you think youth and/or seniors could contribute to increasing their inclusion and/or decreasing their isolation (for themselves, in your organization, in the community)? |
Kitchen Table Talk Discussion | |
18. | In the next stage of this project, we will be meeting with seniors and youth from the community to discuss these issues. a. What would you want to learn from these folks? b. Would you want to participate in these sessions? If so, what role could you play? Host an informal discussion for your own program participants (youth or seniors); 1. Host a session and invite 8-10 members of your community (seniors, youth, supporters, gatekeepers) to an informal discussion; 2. Participate in a group processing of the information gathered from the sessions; 3. Take part in a learning forum to discuss what was learned from the informal discussion in our community and in other communities? c.Can you help us to locate seniors and/or youth to participate in these sessions? |
Closing:
- Ask them if they have any questions or anything else to add
- Tell them that we will draft a summary of the interview and send it to them for review by email within a few days
- Let them know that their email address is included in a listing that will be used to share information about this project – at both the local and regional levels – and that they may receive invitations to participate in future learning forums or feedback session