Socially excluded people
thepeoplepartnership has worked extensively with sections of the community who may be hard to find, hard to persuade to be interviewed and are often difficult to communicate with even after research has provided good insight about their needs and motivations.
A flavour of the kinds of projects we have conducted in this area....
a) Homeless young people
We conducted exploratory work looking at how to better engage homeless young people with learning.
We worked with staff from a sheltered housing association to recruit the young people within shelters across the country.
Researchers went to the housing association premises and spent time getting to know the staff and the full range of young people that use the organisation.
Research sessions were conducted via a mix of informal chats and more formal sessions. Research participants received gift tokens which were only applicable for certain retail outlets (to ensure responsible usage) as a thank you for their time.
We did not use formally produced stimulus material. Instead we took along a range of youth magazines and communications for a range of youth brands and learning-based products and services, making sure that we included lots of different formats and communication channels. Importantly we put the emphasis on the young people bringing along their own stuff as well.
Output took the form of multi-media stimulus to help the client understand the reality of the young peoples' lives, their loves/hates and aspirations, as well as details on what this meant for course design and communication strategy.
b) Disabled people
As part of a project to improve online information provision for disabled people, we conducted a large scale project among disabled people and people with medical conditions. The sample covered a wide range of disabled people, from people with visual impairments right through to people with communication difficulties, across all levels of severity.
Our specialist recruiters approached relevant local organisations (support groups/special schools/sheltered accommodation) to engage with the people we needed to speak to.
The design of the research had to take into account any special access needs resulting from individuals' disabilities, the need for a huge amount of information to be assimilated and generated and the fact that the aim of the research was to develop accessible online information.
Research sessions were therefore individually adapted to people's needs, which meant that some were in groups, some one to one and some conducted with a carer present.
The research design built in time to allow participants to think about their information needs before and after, as well as during, the actual research session. This meant that individuals felt more confident with the task and that we got the maximum possible detail from the research.
c) People lacking basic skills
We have conducted lots of research among people lacking basic skills. Project objectives have included input into the initial development of communication strategy through to pre- and post-testing advertising designed to engage people lacking basic skills with learning. We have also conducted projects focused on understanding how to motivate learners to continue learning once they have started and also on how best to develop learning products and aids.
To get the right people, our recruiters personally visit a variety of venues, including local estates, community centres, local pubs and Jobcentres.
A primary consideration when thinking about sample design is who we mean when talking about 'people lacking basic skills'. Communication strategy, advertising and product manifestations will vary hugely depending on whether the target audience is, for example, people who are working and wanting to brush up their basic skills versus people who are long term unemployed or people with learning difficulties or disabilities.
Research sessions are much more successful if they are conducted in venues that the target audience is familiar with and feels comfortable in, for example pubs, community canteens and people's houses. Recruiting people who know each other or, at least, providing friendship pairs within groups also helps to put people at ease.
The stimulus material we use for exploratory sessions is very loose so that participants view it as something to chat about, rather than 'concepts'. When we are testing advertising ideas, though, it is important that as little is left to the imagination as possible, as respondents are likely to take anything they are shown very literally and be resistant to thinking about it in a lateral way.