Module 16:
Facilitating Focus groups
Overview
This module is focused on setting up and hosting focus groups.
Learning outcomes: You'll know what hosting a focus group looks like, general instructions, and some ways to solicit better feedback and answers from participants!
What we'll do: Review some instructions, and read some documents to make sure we're paying attention to the trauma we might bring up!
Lights, camera, action!
Focus Group Instructions
Set it up: find your room or virtual meeting space and have it ready to host your participants
Prepare: get yourself ready by familiarizing yourself with the topics
Introduce the team: break the ice a little, let everyone in the room know who's with you and helping out
Administer informed consent: make sure everyone knows what's going on, and agrees to participate
Ask questions and monitor discussion
It may be difficult, but try to control exclamations in response to participant answers. Phrases such as "interesting," "great," or "that is terrible" are not appropriate in the research setting - we don't want to influence the way people respond!
Leave the empty space of silence/pauses in discussion. Some participants may need time for reflection
End the group, and save the data: thank everyone for their participation, save the recording (if online) or your notes to the proper location, and figure out/distribute participation incentives
Things to consider.
You'll want to be familiar with what you're asking and the protocol for questioning.
Explain to the group that everyone has a chance to share their opinions, but they don't need to say something on everything!
In case we're over Zoom:
Keep camera on, and mic muted when you aren't speaking.
Relay this instruction to all participants.
Encourage folks to use gallery view - this way they can see everyone they're participating with.
Try starting with something light and popcorn around, such as "how is everyone feeling?"
We'll be working together to flesh out what to ask in the focus groups. We'll be working together to build out focus group guides, with you as the community research team taking point. Think of the sorts of questions you may want to ask surrounding mentoring, outcomes, and positive youth development. Remember: you're the expert with experience and relationships already built. We're here to help you succeed!
On top of the guide, we trust you to determine who to include in the focus groups, where to host them, and how to best conduct them, whether that be online or virtually!
Since we are interacting directly with people, it is important to use trauma-informed interviewing techniques. Please take a moment to read the article below about creating a trauma-informed space. We want to do everything we can to protect our participants from harm and trauma. Feel free to save this PDF for your personal reference and note taking.
Trauma-informed interviewing.pdfThe Takeaway: Focus groups are how we're going to get granular feedback from mentees on how credible messenger programming works, areas where it can improve, and what aspects of it feel the most rewarding. What we learn from these focus groups will inform the next developments in credible messenger mentoring!