Instructions for Story Collection
Welfare Reform and Family
Self-Sufficiency
The following instructions cover what you should do
following the identification of individuals who will be providing their stories
for the Faces of Change Phase II: Welfare Reform and Family
Self-sufficiency project. In the
instructions, the participants providing stories will be referred to as authors, as they are the authors of the
stories–their stories–they are providing.
The agency staff assisting with story collection will be referred to as story collectors.
1. Identify who will record the author’s story. It is likely that the person who does the initial work on this
project (identifying authors to be selected) will be different than the person
who collects the actual interview. We
suggest that the story collector be a direct service professional with an
established relationship with the author.
If that option is not available, then another agency staff member may be
the collector.
2. Schedule the session with the author. Once authors have been identified, schedule a time for the
session. Each story collecting session
should last approximately thirty to sixty minutes. You may want to schedule 75 minutes for each session to ensure
adequate time to review the consent form and orient the author. Of course, it may be best to schedule all of
the sessions over a block of time (an afternoon or a full day) depending on the
number of stories your organization will be submitting.
3. Plan for story collection. In
anticipation of story collection, please make sure you have the materials you
need. Most important, you will need
blank copies of the story collection form.
Since the preferred method of recording the author’s responses is by
tape recording, please have a tape recorder or dictaphone and a blank tape
available for use. Finally, please
reserve confidential space for the interview.
Confidential space may be a private counselor office a conference room
or the author’s home.
4. Orient the author to the process. When you meet with the author, welcome him or her and describe
the Faces of Change project. Review the Consent Form with the
author. If the author consents to
participate, have him or her sign the consent form. Keep the original for your records. Provide a copy of the consent to the author. Authors may write their stories out longhand
on the Story Collection Form. Identify
to the author that the preferred method of story collection is to have the
author’s responses tape recorded. You
can explain that the reason tape recording is preferred is to ensure that
nothing gets left out from their story.
If however, the author objects to tape recording, or the story collector
is unable to locate a tape recorder, the story collector may write down the
author’s story, following the questions listed on the interview guide. Should this method be followed, story collection must be a complete and
exact representation of the author’s words.
Do not edit or correct grammar, spelling or vernacular usage.
5. Review the form. Please
review the story collection form fully with the participant before beginning to collect the story. It will help greatly to give a copy of the
Story Collection Form to the author as a stimulus. Ask the general questions on the form listed under the topic
headings, questions 1-6, making sure to check off each of the Points to Cover as that topic is
covered in the author’s response. If a
point isn’t covered initially, you should ask it in follow-up. Also, make sure
the Author scores the associated change scale for each subject area. Once all the Points to Cover have been answered and the change scale has been
scored, you may go on to the next question.
6. Maintain Neutrality. The
stories collected are part of a research study. It is important that the authors’ responses be their own and not
be influenced by the story collector’s opinion on any of the issues presented
on the story collection form. That
means you should not characterize any of the aspects of welfare reform policy
listed on the form. Answers to
questions about the form must focus on the getting the author to describe his
or her experience with the area asked about on the form.
7. Close the interview. Thank the
author for his/her participation and remind the author that the final product
of this research will be a report that he or she will receive.
8. Transcribe Tapes and Written Materials. All interviews, written, taped or dictated, will need to be
transcribed. If the story was dictated
into a tape recorder, transcribe the tape in a word processing program, either
MS Word or Wordperfect on the disk provided.
If an author objected to tape recording and the author wrote out the
story, or dictated the story to you, transcribe the hand-written version in a word
processing program, either MS Word or Wordperfect on the disk provided. Keep a
backup copy of the word processed version of the story for your records. You should also retain any paper copies that
were used to write down the story.
9. Save and Mail Results. Word-processed stories should be saved on
diskette. Stories may be e-mailed as
attachments to the Research Department.
Disks must be mailed to the Research Department at the Alliance for
Children and Families. Please retain
for your records the original interview, consent form and the tape onto which
interviews were recorded. Mailed
materials should be sent to:
Research
Department
Alliance for Children and Families
11700
West Lake Park Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53224.
10. Thank You. That’s all
the instructions. Thank you for helping
to make this project a success.