Resident Focus Group

Resident Focus Groups

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Public Law 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: Through this information collection, ACF is gathering data on your grant program to understand the design and effectiveness of the program and to inform technical assistance needs. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1.5 hours per respondent, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a voluntary collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0628 and the expiration date is 09/30/2024. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact juliana.melara@acf.hhs.gov.

Opening: Hello, I appreciate that each of you are taking the time to speak with me today. I'm [x] from the Office of Community Services and we’re interested in learning more about the services that your [apartment building/housing development] currently offers to you all through the Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration. I’m eager to hear your thoughts about what resources are helpful, and what services you think should be added in the future.

Before we get started, I want to review the informed consent information that we provided to your group coordinator to share with you. [Review copy of informed consent with group members]. I want to emphasize that this conversation is voluntary. You are free to leave at any time, and you are not required to answer any questions during this conversation. There will not be any consequences if you choose not to participate. The research team will keep the information you share during our conversation private. We will not share it with anyone who is not on the research team. No personally identifying information is being collected. You will not be identified in any reports about this research. While we encourage everyone present to respect one another’s privacy by not sharing what information about our conversation, we cannot guarantee that everyone will do so. Finally, ACF may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0628 and the expiration date is 09/30/24. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact juliana.melara@acf.hhs.gov. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can call the UMKC Research Compliance at 816-235-5927.

We anticipate the conversation will take about 90 minutes. As a token of our appreciation for your insights today, we will provide you with a $50 gift card at the end of our discussion.

We have one final piece of housekeeping. With your permission, I would also like to record this discussion today, so that I can focus on what everyone is saying and not on taking notes. The recording will be transcribed, so no one outside of our team will hear the recording. If you want to say something that you don’t want recorded, let me know and I will pause the recording. Does anyone wish for this conversation to go unrecorded? [Begin recording if no objections. If someone does not wish to be recorded, inform the person that we will take detailed notes. If the person does not wish to participate, let them know that they are free to leave and are not required to respond to questions].

Now we can begin our conversation. We wish to create a safe space for everyone to speak today, so let me go over some guidelines for our conversation. Each of you were invited here because we care about and value your opinions. It’s absolutely fine to disagree with each other and have respectful conversations about different points of view. I encourage you to talk to each other and not just me. As a reminder, you should only share what you feel comfortable saying, and you can feel free to take a break or leave at any time if you feel uncomfortable. Also, you may learn about other people’s experiences and feelings during the course of our conversation, but I ask you to please respect everyone’s privacy and not share what is discussed in this conversation with others. Simply put, what is said here, stays here.

Questions:

1. To start off, we will go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and share how long you have lived in this community.

2. What services or resources are you aware of being offered in your apartment community?

Have you noticed any changes in the services being offered in the past year?

How do people in the community access the services? Are these services easy to access?

Are there services that are not currently offered in this housing community that would be really helpful to you or others in the community? What services do you wish were being provided?

3. What services do you or people in the community find to be most helpful? If you’re comfortable, can you tell us about which services you chose to use? How often were you engaged with these services and why were they helpful?

If you haven’t engaged with services offered, can you share why? (If comfortable)

PROBES: Are there services that looked helpful but aren’t easy to access? Are there services that aren’t helpful? Are there services that you’re getting outside of your community?

Did you feel comfortable accessing these services in your apartment community? What made you feel comfortable or uncomfortable? Would you prefer to get these types of services in your community or somewhere else?

4. Do you work with a staff member to access services? Who did you work with most often? What are some of the things the staff members does with you or your family? How often did you work with them and for how long? Where did you work with them? How did you feel about working with the staff member?

5. Has anything changed for you (and your family) since you began accessing the services in your apartment community? If so, can you describe what has changed? How do you think the services influenced these changes?

6. Have you noticed changes in your neighbors or the rest of the apartment community since these services were introduced? If so, can you describe what has changed? How do you think the services influenced those changes?

7. Before we close, I want to make sure I understand what’s most important about services available in people’s housing communities. What do you think is the most useful thing that could be done in other communities like yours? Is there anything else you want to share about accessing services in your community?

Thank you for participating in this session today! We know that your time is valuable, so we wanted to give each of you a [gift card] as a gesture of our appreciation.