Interview Techniques: Research Log and Evaluation of Assignment
The initial focus of the documentary was to be on the day to day struggle of those living on the streets, and what could be done to help them/what they believe to be the best possible cause to support in terms of the care they provide for the homeless. As well as also touching on the main reason that most people ended up living on the streets and what changes should be made to prevent this.
- I carried out a lot of secondary research on this matter, reading books on the matter and compiling a list of online sources which highlight the day to day struggles that are faced when living on the street.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/articles/get_practical_help_if_youre_on_the_streets
Shelter works as an online service which outlines the many places that homeless people can go to for help with various issues, it highlights where offers lodging, food, cleaning services or legal advice. A service which I felt to be useful, but only if a homeless person was able to have access to the internet, which isn't always easy to come by when you're living on the street.
Night Shelters
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/temporary_housing_if_youre_homeless/nightshelters
Shelters
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/articles/get_practical_help_if_youre_on_the_streets/shower,_charge_your_phone,_get_legal_advice_and_other_help
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/temporary_housing_if_youre_homeless/day_centres_food,_clothes_and_practical_help
The main help that seems to be available is for overnight shelters, however, these come with a lot of rules which sometimes leave some homeless people unwilling to stay in them. For a number of people this is because most shelters do not accept dogs. Though the shelter service, and dogs trust have resources available to those on the streets, which highlights the shelter services that allow dogs.
-
This soon proved to be too difficult for me to be able to carry out as I did not know enough about the subject to be able to do it justice and develop an informative documentary. However, whilst conducting research for my documentary, a few things stuck out to me, which I felt were some rather interesting points that not everybody will have considered. Thus, the documentary took a different turn, it was now going to focus on the drastic impact funding has on the effectiveness of a charity.
-
As I am still working with the same charities for the new documentary, I am still wanting to touch on the effect it has on the daily life on those living on the streets. Though the main focus will now be on those running the charities, I will still attempt to capture some footage of the organisations in action, this may prove challenging and was another reason as to why I switched focus points, as due to the nature of many of these organisations, I was not permitted to film at all of their buildings and not allowed to work with a number of those that they help.
-
The beginning of my research had me visiting little sprouts to meet some of those that the organisation had previously helped; this is how I met Mark and Anthony. Both Mark and Anthony were formerly homeless, with Mark now owning his own house, thanks to Little Sprouts, and Anthony looking for future work. They have both stated that they would not be where they are without the help of Little Sprouts, which is a testimony of the good that the organisation can do. However, Mark himself has stated that the charity is unable to help the majority of people, and though this may be because a number of those that visit the kitchen are addicts who aren't willing to put the effort in to get off the streets. Despite this point of view being given from someone who has been helped by the service, it is clear that it is not the only reason that the service is unable to help. The service has shown signs of struggling to keep up with the growing demand for its facilities due to a lack of funding. Debbie Fixter, the head of little sprouts, has said that the process for applying for funding is a very long process, which takes man hours away from working on the charity. The kitchen is currently only able to be open on Wednesdays, and operates thanks to the help of volunteers: many of the volunteers are the vulnerable adults that the charity works with, and work in the kitchen to add some structure to their weeks and help to build up some work experience.
--
During my second scouting visit to little sprouts I met a scout for the company, AskFuse. This organisation investigates businesses in the health care sector and determines whether they are eligible for funding. As Little Sprouts had applied for funding from the national lottery enable them to open their kitchen for more than one day a week. And through this meeting, I learned quite a lot on the process of applying for/acquiring funding, I also learnt about how much of an affect funding has on the general operations of a small business. Little Sprouts is a cafeteria which operates with the pay your way initiative, which is a method of promoting dignity to the free cafe, if someone is unable to pay for their meal, then they do not have to, but if they can afford the pound to pay for their own meal, then they are encouraged to do so, as it is seen as them being able to contribute to something and have paid for an important part of their day themselves. This cafe is very important to those that it provides help for as it gives some structure to their day, as well as providing food in a warm, sociable and safe environment, however, due to the severe lack of funding, the cafe is unable to be opened for more than one day a week, leaving those that require the service for food having to resort to other measures or will struggle to find warmth/food for the other days. This drastic impact on the effectiveness of the charity is what pushed me to focus my documentary around funding.
Following this I then began to research other local charities to look into how their charity runs, be it volunteers, donations or whether they were government funded. Most charities in the local area are ran by volunteers and rely solely on donations, and though many of the charities I contacted for my documentary did not get back to me, a 2 did, the Teesside Socialist Clothing bank and the Teesside Homeless Action Group, and though THAG did not wish to be a part of my documentary, they did reveal that they had been winding down. 'Thanks for taking an interest in Teesside Homeless Action Group but sadly we wouldn't be much help. The charity has been winding down for several years and is now all volunteer workers that help homeless people. In fact we do very little fund raising now and work with the charity alongside our everyday jobs.' And I personally feel that this is due to their lack of exposure/promotion, which I believe also ties in with the amount of funding that a charity has, as if they had enough people to keep up an active online presence or to have ties with local homeless aid agencies, as many of the successful charities have, then they would be able to draw in enough clients to enable them to be eligible for better funding/premises.
With this idea in mind, I then set about composing interviews with my fellow classmates to find out what they thought about the homeless situation in Teesside and have them express their thoughts on the effort put into helping people find homes. A number of my classmates were of the belief that most people on the streets are there of their own volition and substance abuse is the reason that they initially ended up on the streets are because they are substance abusers.
-
Following my interviews with my classmates, I then set fourth to try and counteract the most commonly held beliefs by going out and interviewing a number of local charities. The style that I went for throughout my interviews was an informative, slightly informal style of interview. I wanted to get my interviewees to get involved with the interview, and to have the questions there as a means to carry conversation, but to primarily get involved with their own individual takes on the homeless situation. For my interview with Little Sprouts I read the notes I wrote down when I did my initial research meetings with them, this included my meeting with Ask Fuse, which is where I found out most of my information on Little Sprouts business plans/operations. This enabled me to come up with questions which I felt would allow me to find out the most about the business and how the charity runs/how it helps its cliental. So all of my questions were thought up following my early research meetings, and I simply added to them with some online research on other charities/funding schemes. The interview itself went very well, Debbie, was very happy to promote her charity and discuss the hardships the charity has faced. She was talkative and open about her business practice, as well as being very cooperative with the questions asked. My interview with Little Sprouts served as my opening interview for the bulk of my documentary, I did this because I liked how the charity was ran, it was very clean and tidy, clearly a professional operation, ran as a business. With how clear it was that the charity was ran as a business, I felt that it would be good to open with them, to then show the contrast to the other charities later on in the documentary which are visible less formal in terms of business practice.
-
The preparation I did for my interview with TSCB was similar to the research I did for Little Sprouts, however, I had since learnt some more information n what it takes to run a charity thanks to my interview with Little Sprouts. I am less happy with this interview due to the camera work and audio quality, however, I do believe that the interview itself went very well as Ruth got very involved with the interview, and revealed a lot of information on what it takes for them to run their business. The quality of the information gathered was very high, and despite the quality of the camera work, a majority was usable. Though I did have to replace parts of the footage with a voice over. Despite its flaws, I felt that this interview served as a very good contrast between registered and unregistered charities, and it will work very well to show my audience the difference that government approval and funding can have on a grass roots charity.
-
Overall, I felt as though my interviews were a success. I believe that I learnt a fair amount on the subject myself, and as I had previously researched the subject, I believe that the viewers of my documentary will learn a great deal on the subject of charity work and how funding plays a role in the care provided for others.
-
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/10/no-room-at-the-inn-uk-homeless-charities-turn-away-xmas-volunteers
-
Charities turning away volunteers
-
Moses project.
-
info@bridgehousemission.co.uk
Accommodation for 28 homeless people at a time, they provide legal advice, health screenings and meals
-
teeshomeless@gmail.com
Teesside homeless action group (redcar) doesn't seem overly developed. seemingly still under operation, though their web presence is near enough abandoned, and I feel that it could be a good one to focus on for the struggles of a new charity
-
middlesbrough.west.central@salvationarmy.org.uk
-
Just giving has a section dedicated to helping the homeless, and is of course to do with funding. Could mention this to the organisations I contact as a means of discussing their funding and other alternatives.
-
-
Kitchen equipment for soup kitchens, possibilities for Little Sprouts?
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/scott-loader-1
-
Lottery funding
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/national-lottery-awards-for-all-England
-
https://mvda.info/What%20we%20do
-
https://charityawards.co.uk/overall-award-for-excellence-winner-who-cares-scotland/
Charity awards
-
Look further into ask Fuse
http://www.fuse.ac.uk/news/majornewreportconnectsnorthspoorhealthwithpoorproductivity.html
Good post
-
-
https://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/220693/GP_Briefing_Food_for_thought.pdf
Talks on the troubles of running a soup kitchen
-
- I carried out a lot of secondary research on this matter, reading books on the matter and compiling a list of online sources which highlight the day to day struggles that are faced when living on the street.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/articles/get_practical_help_if_youre_on_the_streets
Shelter works as an online service which outlines the many places that homeless people can go to for help with various issues, it highlights where offers lodging, food, cleaning services or legal advice. A service which I felt to be useful, but only if a homeless person was able to have access to the internet, which isn't always easy to come by when you're living on the street.
Night Shelters
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/temporary_housing_if_youre_homeless/nightshelters
Shelters
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/articles/get_practical_help_if_youre_on_the_streets/shower,_charge_your_phone,_get_legal_advice_and_other_help
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/temporary_housing_if_youre_homeless/day_centres_food,_clothes_and_practical_help
The main help that seems to be available is for overnight shelters, however, these come with a lot of rules which sometimes leave some homeless people unwilling to stay in them. For a number of people this is because most shelters do not accept dogs. Though the shelter service, and dogs trust have resources available to those on the streets, which highlights the shelter services that allow dogs.
-
This soon proved to be too difficult for me to be able to carry out as I did not know enough about the subject to be able to do it justice and develop an informative documentary. However, whilst conducting research for my documentary, a few things stuck out to me, which I felt were some rather interesting points that not everybody will have considered. Thus, the documentary took a different turn, it was now going to focus on the drastic impact funding has on the effectiveness of a charity.
-
As I am still working with the same charities for the new documentary, I am still wanting to touch on the effect it has on the daily life on those living on the streets. Though the main focus will now be on those running the charities, I will still attempt to capture some footage of the organisations in action, this may prove challenging and was another reason as to why I switched focus points, as due to the nature of many of these organisations, I was not permitted to film at all of their buildings and not allowed to work with a number of those that they help.
-
The beginning of my research had me visiting little sprouts to meet some of those that the organisation had previously helped; this is how I met Mark and Anthony. Both Mark and Anthony were formerly homeless, with Mark now owning his own house, thanks to Little Sprouts, and Anthony looking for future work. They have both stated that they would not be where they are without the help of Little Sprouts, which is a testimony of the good that the organisation can do. However, Mark himself has stated that the charity is unable to help the majority of people, and though this may be because a number of those that visit the kitchen are addicts who aren't willing to put the effort in to get off the streets. Despite this point of view being given from someone who has been helped by the service, it is clear that it is not the only reason that the service is unable to help. The service has shown signs of struggling to keep up with the growing demand for its facilities due to a lack of funding. Debbie Fixter, the head of little sprouts, has said that the process for applying for funding is a very long process, which takes man hours away from working on the charity. The kitchen is currently only able to be open on Wednesdays, and operates thanks to the help of volunteers: many of the volunteers are the vulnerable adults that the charity works with, and work in the kitchen to add some structure to their weeks and help to build up some work experience.
--
During my second scouting visit to little sprouts I met a scout for the company, AskFuse. This organisation investigates businesses in the health care sector and determines whether they are eligible for funding. As Little Sprouts had applied for funding from the national lottery enable them to open their kitchen for more than one day a week. And through this meeting, I learned quite a lot on the process of applying for/acquiring funding, I also learnt about how much of an affect funding has on the general operations of a small business. Little Sprouts is a cafeteria which operates with the pay your way initiative, which is a method of promoting dignity to the free cafe, if someone is unable to pay for their meal, then they do not have to, but if they can afford the pound to pay for their own meal, then they are encouraged to do so, as it is seen as them being able to contribute to something and have paid for an important part of their day themselves. This cafe is very important to those that it provides help for as it gives some structure to their day, as well as providing food in a warm, sociable and safe environment, however, due to the severe lack of funding, the cafe is unable to be opened for more than one day a week, leaving those that require the service for food having to resort to other measures or will struggle to find warmth/food for the other days. This drastic impact on the effectiveness of the charity is what pushed me to focus my documentary around funding.
Following this I then began to research other local charities to look into how their charity runs, be it volunteers, donations or whether they were government funded. Most charities in the local area are ran by volunteers and rely solely on donations, and though many of the charities I contacted for my documentary did not get back to me, a 2 did, the Teesside Socialist Clothing bank and the Teesside Homeless Action Group, and though THAG did not wish to be a part of my documentary, they did reveal that they had been winding down. 'Thanks for taking an interest in Teesside Homeless Action Group but sadly we wouldn't be much help. The charity has been winding down for several years and is now all volunteer workers that help homeless people. In fact we do very little fund raising now and work with the charity alongside our everyday jobs.' And I personally feel that this is due to their lack of exposure/promotion, which I believe also ties in with the amount of funding that a charity has, as if they had enough people to keep up an active online presence or to have ties with local homeless aid agencies, as many of the successful charities have, then they would be able to draw in enough clients to enable them to be eligible for better funding/premises.
With this idea in mind, I then set about composing interviews with my fellow classmates to find out what they thought about the homeless situation in Teesside and have them express their thoughts on the effort put into helping people find homes. A number of my classmates were of the belief that most people on the streets are there of their own volition and substance abuse is the reason that they initially ended up on the streets are because they are substance abusers.
-
Following my interviews with my classmates, I then set fourth to try and counteract the most commonly held beliefs by going out and interviewing a number of local charities. The style that I went for throughout my interviews was an informative, slightly informal style of interview. I wanted to get my interviewees to get involved with the interview, and to have the questions there as a means to carry conversation, but to primarily get involved with their own individual takes on the homeless situation. For my interview with Little Sprouts I read the notes I wrote down when I did my initial research meetings with them, this included my meeting with Ask Fuse, which is where I found out most of my information on Little Sprouts business plans/operations. This enabled me to come up with questions which I felt would allow me to find out the most about the business and how the charity runs/how it helps its cliental. So all of my questions were thought up following my early research meetings, and I simply added to them with some online research on other charities/funding schemes. The interview itself went very well, Debbie, was very happy to promote her charity and discuss the hardships the charity has faced. She was talkative and open about her business practice, as well as being very cooperative with the questions asked. My interview with Little Sprouts served as my opening interview for the bulk of my documentary, I did this because I liked how the charity was ran, it was very clean and tidy, clearly a professional operation, ran as a business. With how clear it was that the charity was ran as a business, I felt that it would be good to open with them, to then show the contrast to the other charities later on in the documentary which are visible less formal in terms of business practice.
-
The preparation I did for my interview with TSCB was similar to the research I did for Little Sprouts, however, I had since learnt some more information n what it takes to run a charity thanks to my interview with Little Sprouts. I am less happy with this interview due to the camera work and audio quality, however, I do believe that the interview itself went very well as Ruth got very involved with the interview, and revealed a lot of information on what it takes for them to run their business. The quality of the information gathered was very high, and despite the quality of the camera work, a majority was usable. Though I did have to replace parts of the footage with a voice over. Despite its flaws, I felt that this interview served as a very good contrast between registered and unregistered charities, and it will work very well to show my audience the difference that government approval and funding can have on a grass roots charity.
-
Overall, I felt as though my interviews were a success. I believe that I learnt a fair amount on the subject myself, and as I had previously researched the subject, I believe that the viewers of my documentary will learn a great deal on the subject of charity work and how funding plays a role in the care provided for others.
-
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/10/no-room-at-the-inn-uk-homeless-charities-turn-away-xmas-volunteers
-
Charities turning away volunteers
-
Moses project.
-
info@bridgehousemission.co.uk
Accommodation for 28 homeless people at a time, they provide legal advice, health screenings and meals
-
teeshomeless@gmail.com
Teesside homeless action group (redcar) doesn't seem overly developed. seemingly still under operation, though their web presence is near enough abandoned, and I feel that it could be a good one to focus on for the struggles of a new charity
-
middlesbrough.west.central@salvationarmy.org.uk
-
Just giving has a section dedicated to helping the homeless, and is of course to do with funding. Could mention this to the organisations I contact as a means of discussing their funding and other alternatives.
-
-
Kitchen equipment for soup kitchens, possibilities for Little Sprouts?
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/scott-loader-1
-
Lottery funding
https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/national-lottery-awards-for-all-England
-
https://mvda.info/What%20we%20do
-
https://charityawards.co.uk/overall-award-for-excellence-winner-who-cares-scotland/
Charity awards
-
Look further into ask Fuse
http://www.fuse.ac.uk/news/majornewreportconnectsnorthspoorhealthwithpoorproductivity.html
Good post
-
-
https://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/220693/GP_Briefing_Food_for_thought.pdf
Talks on the troubles of running a soup kitchen
-
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