Activity: Neighborhood Interviews

Objectives:

• To conduct interviews with people in the neighborhood to get relevant information for the project ideas identified in the Goal Identification phase of the project lifecycle
• To help young activists learn interviewing skills

Materials: Pen, pencils, paper, notebooks and, if possible digital cameras and recording equipment

Duration: 1-3 hours

Procedure:

1. Young activists create a script with the questions they would like to answer in order to know more about the topics identified in the Goal Identification and decide what to do as part of their projects. AS a rule of thumb, is usually helpful to focus on questions such as ‘who, when, why, where and how’. For instance, “when is it that the issue started to happen?”, “when does it occur”, “who is impacted by it”, “who can change it”, “how to improve the situation?”, etc.
2. The group then determines whom they would like to include in their interviews, and where and when the interviews should be carried.
3. Young activists define their roles for interviewing. For instance:
• Who will interview the people identified for the interview in the community?
• Who will take down notes while another participant is interviewing?
• Who will take pictures with the camera?
• Who will establish where they are going? For example, identifying the streets, local areas and organizations.
4. The group carries out the interviews and analyzes the major findings.

Comments:

• Besides helping in the organization of the interviews, facilitators play the particularly important role of helping young activists establish their first contacts with community organizations related to their projects.
• In general, it is better to split the young activists in groups of 4 or less for the interviews.
• A good way to achieve confidence in interviewing is to have young activists practicing among themselves.
• Analysis of the interview data can happen either in the same interview session or in the next session.