Appendix B: Interview guides and IRB Application

Research Protocol Information:

1. Purpose and rationale:
   The purpose of this research project is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of, and to help identify future directions for the community of Robbins, NC. Community leaders, community members, and those who provide services to the community will be interviewed individually to obtain information. Results of the interviews will then be summarized and made available to community members.
2. Description of human subjects:
   The human subjects for this study include community leaders and members of the Robbins community. Only members of this community and those who provide services to the community will be asked to participate in the study. Only individuals who are over 18 years of age who agree to participate will be interviewed. Minority status and sex are not relevant factors in selecting participants.
3. Methods of recruitment:
   Community leaders and service providers will be contacted about their availability and interest to participate in this study. Community leaders and service providers will identify community members to contact for interviews. When community leaders and service providers supply names of community members to interview, we will ask to use their names to inform potential participants of who referred us to them. Once identified, subjects will be contacted, informed of how and from whom we goth their name and asked to participate in an interview. Monica Adamian, Robin Argue, Alyse Behrman, Laurie Schowalter, Erica Taylor, and Debbie Zysman will recruit interviewees. It is anticipated that a total of about 30 community leaders and members; and about 15 service providers will be contacted for interviews.
4. Research Protocol:
   Community leaders and service providers will be asked similar, yet slightly different questions during interviews. Monica Adamian, Robin Argue, Alyse Behrman, Laurie Schowalter, Erica Taylor, and Debbie Zysman will conduct the interviews. Responses will be kept confidential and interviewees will remain anonymous; however general identifiers such as age, sex, race, and number of years residing in Robbins community may be used when summarizing data.
5. Compensation and costs:
   Interviewees will not be compensated nor given inducements for their participation. The only costs to participants will be the time spent in interviews. These interviews and focus groups are expected to last 60-90 minutes.
6. Risks to subjects:
   Physical, psychological, and social risks should be negligible. Interviews will focus primarily on the strengths, weaknesses, and directions for the development of the Robbins community. Results will be summarized and made available to the community leaders, members, and service providers.
7. Confidentiality of data:
   Names and personal identifiers of all persons contacted for interviews will be kept confidential. A description will be provided instead (e.g. white, middle aged female, has resided in community for 10 years) in preparing the document. However, if a service provider does not care to remain anonymous and grants permission for use of her or his name, researchers may choose to use these names. Regardless, all community members will remain anonymous.
8. Benefits:
   A written summary of the strengths and weaknesses of, and suggested future directions for the Robbins community will be made available to community leaders, community members, and service providers.
9. Procedures for obtaining informed consent:
   The consent form will be read aloud to each participant, who will then be asked if they have any questions. After making certain questions all have been answered, researchers will proceed to ask interview questions. Permission for audio taping will also be secured prior to taping.
10. Public release of data:
    Researchers do not plan to release collected data. The purpose of this project is to fulfill course requirements for HBHE240 and HBHE241: Community Diagnosis.

Service Provider Interview Guide

1. Opening
   • Thank you for taking the time to meet with me/us. We recognize that your time is valuable and we appreciate your participation.
   • We are graduate students from UNC School of Public health. A requirement of our graduate program is that we work with a community in NC to conduct a community diagnosis. This means that we help the community to identify its strengths, weaknesses, and future directions. Our community is Robbins. The information that we gather will be summarized and shared with the community. In addition, we will present our results to the community at a forum that will be held in the spring.
   • The purpose of speaking with you today is to find out about your thoughts and experiences having worked with the residents of Robbins. We are interested in your opinions. There are no right or wrong answers.
   • Time: This interview should last 60 to 90 minutes. We would like to give you the opportunity to tell us as much as you would like, but (mention if you have limited time/ask if they do).
2. Confidentiality
   • Your comments will remain confidential. We will be reporting the summaries of the comments made by community members but will not identify who said what, not will we identify the names of the individuals that we interview.
   • We would like to take notes and tape record this interview. Your input is important and we want to make sure that we accurately record what you tell us. Feel free to not respond to any question that we ask, or hit the "Stop" button on the tape recorder at any time. After we are finished using the tapes for this class, the cassettes will be recycled or destroyed. Is this okay with you?
3. Ground Rules
   • Right to refuse: if at any time while we are talking you don't want to answer a question, you do not feel comfortable, or you would like to end the interview, please feel free to let me/us know.

Do you have any questions about what I have said so far?

4. Overview of Services
   • Could you please provide me/us with an overview of the services your agency provides?
   • What is your agency's source of funding?
   • What services does you agency provide for the residents of Robbins?
   • What is your role in providing these services?
   • What kind of contact do you have with the residents of Robbins? Probe: which groups? How often?
   • What special criteria must people meet in order to be eligible for your services?
   • What Robbins groups use your services most?
   • What Robbins groups tend to be the most in need of your services?
   • What barriers do you encounter trying to reach Robbins residents? (geographic, transportation, etc.)
   • What other agencies provide services to Robbins residents?
   • How does your agency meet the cultural and language needs of the various groups of Robbins?
5. Community
   • What would you say are the strengths of the Robbins community?
   • What would you say are the greatest needs of the Robbins community?
   • What kind of community projects have been undertaken in robbins during your time of working with community residents? Probe: How would you explain their success or lack of?
   • Who would you say are the key community leaders in Robbins?
   • If you were going to try to implement some type of community health project in Robbins, who from the Robbins community would you try to involve to ensure success?
   • How is the community involved in determining the services you provide?
6. General
   • Is there anything else that you can tell me/us about the Robbins community?
   • Is there anything else that you think I/we should know about?
7. Documents
   • Does your agency have any documents (e.g. annual reports, funding applications, etc.) that we can either look at or have copies of?
8. Referrals
   • Who else would you recommend that we talk to about the needs and assets of Robbins? Probe: Would you be willing for us to mention your name when we talk to them?

Thank you for your time!

Community Member Interview Guide

1. Opening
   • Thank you for taking the time to meet with me/us. We recognize that your time is valuable and we appreciate your participation.
   • We are graduate students from UNC School of Public health. A requirement of our graduate program is that we work with a community in NC to conduct a community diagnosis. This means that we help the community to identify its strengths, weakness, and future directions. Our community is Robbins. the information we gather will be summarized and shared with the community. In addition, we will present our results to the community at a forum that will be held in the spring.
   • The purpose of speaking with you today is to find out about your thoughts and experiences (having lived/having worked in/being familiar with) Robbins Are. We are interested in your opinions. there are no right or wrong answers.
   • Time: This interview should last 60 to 90 minutes. we would like to five you the opportunity to tell us as much as you would like, but (mention if you have limited time/ask if they do).
2. Confidentiality
   • Your comments will remain confidential. We will be reporting summaries of the comments made by community members, but will not identify who said what, nor will we identify the names of the individuals we interview.
   • We would like to take notes and tape record this interview. Your input is important and we want to make sure that we accurately record what you tell us. Fee free to not respond to any question we ask, or hit the "Stop" button on the tape recorder at any time. After we are finished using the tapes for this class, the cassettes will be recycled or destroyed. Is this okay with you?
3. Ground Rules
   • Right to refuse: if at any time while we are talking you don't want to answer a question, you do not feel comfortable, or you would like to end the interview, please feel free to let me/us know.

Do you have any questions about anything I've said so far?

4. Self and Family
   • How long have you lived in this area?
   • Who are the members of your family?
   • What kinds of work do you and the members of your family do? Where?
   • What activities in the community are you involved in?
   • Do you attend a church? (If yes: where?)
5. Geography of community
   • We have been asked to work with the Robbins community. How would you define Robbins? (show map)
   • About how many people would you say live in Robbins?
6. Assessment of community
   • If someone were considering moving to Robbins, what would you tell that person about the area to convince him or her to move here? Probe: What are other strengths or good things about Robbins?
   • How could Robbins be improved? Probe: What other problems/areas are other strengths or good things about Robbins?
   • Would you consider Robbins a stagnant community or a changing community? What makes you think this? Is this something that you would consider to be good or bad for Robbins?
   • How would you feel about growth in the area? Probe: Is this something that would be good or bad for Robbins?
   • Who do you consider to be your neighbor?
   • How well would you say people know their neighbors?
   • If you needed help for some reason, whom would you turn to?
   • What different ethnic groups live here?
   • What are some divisions within the community?
   • How does the above groups interact?
7. Community Activities
   • What organizations are in the Robbins community?
   • Who are the important people in the community for getting things done? Probe: Who are the formal/informal community leaders?
   • What kind of projects has Robbins worked on together (in the past 5-10 years)? How were you involved in these efforts?
   • What groups of people are involved in community activities? Probe: Are people from all age groups involved? (Are young people-those under 30-involved in community activities?)
8. Employment/Economics
   • Where would you say most people in Robbins work?
   • What do you think of these job opportunities? (Are they "good" jobs, "bad" jobs, etc?)
9. Health
   • What health problems have you and your family had to deal with?
   • What are the main health problems of the people in Robbins?
   • Where do you and your family get medical care?
   • What do most people do when they have health problems? (i.e. Do they seek care?)
   • Where do most people in this community go to receive medical care?
   • How do most people get to the (doctor, health department, etc.)? (i.e. What kind of transportation is available?)
   • What kinds of human, social or health services have you (or your family) used? Probe: What was it like?
   • Would you consider Robbins to be a health community? Probe: What makes it a health community? Why wouldn't you consider Robbins to be a health community?
10. Resources
    • How do you feel about the schools in the Robbins area?
    • Where do the people in the community go to exercise?
    • Where do the people in the community go for food/clothing?
    • Where do the people in the community go for recreation/fun?
    • How do they get to these places? Probe: What services are provided for those who are unable to get to these places?
    • What are some resources that are provided specifically for the youth/elderly?
    • What resources would you like to see in Robbins that are not here?
11. Changes over time
    • Thinking about all of these things we've discussed above: How has Robbins changed over the past 5 years? Probe: Is there anything different about Robbins now?
    • What do you think about these changes? Probe: Are there some things that you consider to be good or bad?
12. Perceptions of the future
    • How do you think Robbins will change over the course of the next five years?
    • What do you hope to see happen here in the next five years?
    • What are your plans for the future?
13. Closing
    • Is there anything else that I have not asked about, that is important for me to know about Robbins?
    • Can you think of some other people in the Robbins community who we should speak to about robbins? Do we have your permission to tell them you referred us to them?
    • What did you think of the interview questions? (Ask for first interviews only.)

Thank you again for your participation!

References

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Appendix C: Fact Sheet and List of Interview Participants