Page 1 of eleven pages total |
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
Commitment to Diversity Task Force Community Life Committee
ON-THE-STREET INTERVIEWS
By Jim Boushay, president, Resources Unlimited Foundation
A total of 67 interviews took place during the Saturday and Sunday of each of the last two weekends in October 2000. The purpose of the on-the-street and at-random conversations at eight pre-selected locations was to gather and analyze information in order to shape and influence policy on present and future initiatives in community life, integration, diversity.
The eight locations were (1) the library on Lake Street, (2) Downtown, (3) the AVENUE shopping area, (4) the Harrison Street area, (5) the south Oak Park area, (6) Madison Street at East Avenue, (7) Scoville Park, and (8) Field House at Woodbine Avenue and Division Street.
A majority of people interviewed (48 of 67) were generally familiar with the village’s history of—and institutional commitment to—fairness, diversity, and integration in building community through better human relations.
For 20 of those 48, their private understandings of the public commitment to improved equity were a blend of the negative and positive. Some favorably acknowledged the village’s welcoming environments of customer service, most frequently citing a superb library, excellent schools, friendly municipal offices, open public events, beautiful parks.
Others expressed dissatisfaction that at times their personal experiences of exclusion have been in painful contradiction to the publicly articulated realities of inclusion. Some recalled episodes in which municipal officials and community leaders were ineffective at nurturing an all-embracing sense of how greater inclusion leads to community and civic improvements.
What’s more, a majority of those interviewed (41 of 67) seemed fairly relaxed, even eager to be interviewed. In fact, many shared explicitly positive stories, perceptions, thoughts, ideas about community life—past, present, future. The remaining 26 of 67 indicated variously that the interview was an opportunity to reassert the ongoing need for residents to step out of their comfort zones as a means of facing an increasingly interdependent culture. They recommended a variety of renewed public re-assertions, valuing the ways citizens learn to engage lived complexity by confronting the varying intersections of unique similarity and |
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
difference. Expressions of public policy, they said, need to grow, changing to reflect active awareness and understanding of newer complexities, yet reasonably free of restrictive judgment and bias.
In general, the interviews indicated that unique expressions of equality and diversity are often affirmed by the examples set through the customary sources of information and influence. There are, they indicated, naturally multi layered conduits of influence that both interrelate and stand alone.
The five most prominent influences mentioned are:
• (1) Knowledge accumulated from lived experiences • (2) Information in local/regional newspapers and other forms of mass media • (3) Involvements, both ongoing and ad hoc, with faith-based, social welfare, and social justice organizations • (4) Conversations with neighbors having attended or now attending local public or private schools, and • (5) Lessons learned from observations of, and engagements with other citizens, including residents, friends, acquaintances, colleagues
Altogether, the deliberately random series of one-on-one conversations typically ranged from three minutes at the least to seven or eight minutes at the most (with one exception lasting 15 minutes). Some 65 percent of the total interviews averaged four-to-six minutes.
For 80 percent of all conversations—whatever the length—verbatim notes and comments were immediately recorded and written in notebooks or on clipboards that were out of view during the interview. In the remaining 20 percent of the interviews, comments and ideas were recorded within 5-10 minutes after closure. In one instance, interview results were recorded several hours afterward.
Thus interviews were conducted without visible evidence of paper and pen. The recording of comments and information occurred once the visit had ended and the citizen was offered a flyer inviting attendance at an upcoming public forum on community life.
During the planning phase for these on-the-street conversations, the six volunteer interviewers/recorders surfaced a range of neighborly options to use. More important, a potluck and at-random approach was used to generate reasonably informal—sometimes spontaneous—conversations. At the same time, given reciprocal feelings of risk, it was important mutually to respect the people asked either to elicit or share confidential/private information. After initial pleasantries, citizens were informed that the information gathering experience would result in sharing and analyzing the findings in the structure of an |
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
Ad Hoc municipal task force composed of citizens intent on shaping and making new policies to create a better community.
The task force’s purpose, residents were told, was to use the results as a means of conceptualizing and undertaking new community life initiatives. As many as 10 residents declined to participate.
The democratic spirit of the 67 total conversations was to listen, confirm, clarify, listen more, and then again re-clarify and re-confirm what was heard in back-and-forth frameworks of open-ended discourse.
The environment for that kind of civic engagement elicited a range of answers in response to three questions about community life. The broad questions were developed in earlier meetings of the full community-life committee and in ongoing follow-up phone calls and e-mails.
The questions asked residents to comment on the obstacles, opportunities, responsibilities, functions, and actions of working cooperatively to embrace greater appreciation for inclusion through improved human relations. The answers routinely included more suggestions for encompassing activities.
Interview results are in spreadsheet format. Available also here are the comments, remarks, ideas, suggested actions, and face photos of the 67 interviewed.
Time spent conceptualizing, directing, and recording the street effort was 36 hours. The follow-up effort—to gather, compile, organize, verify, confirm, reconfirm, format, and write the results—was another 54 hours. The time spent in full committee deliberations has not been calculated here. Thus the on-the-street component of the community life committee of the Diversity Task Force—from start to finish, from conception to planning to execution to evaluation—totals 90 hours of labor.
|
67 INTERVIEWS ARRANGED BY THE ORDER OF THE TIME CONDUCTED 6 interviewers conducted survey
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews
Demographic Summary of Survey (below)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page 10 of eleven pages totalVillage of Oak ParkDiversity Task ForceCommunity Life CommitteeSummary of125 Recommended ACTIONSby 67 residentsin interviewsAccommodating the cultureAcknowledging the effortActualizing the planAdvancing ideasAdvocating for an ideaAffirming the workAgreeing to disagreeAgreeing to helpAllowing for a new awarenessAnswering questionsAppreciating capabilitiesAppreciating valuesApproaching the matter simplyArranging in orderArranging randomlyAsking questionsAssessing resourcesBalancing the competing demandsBecoming the change that is soughtBrainstormingBuilding awareness Building consensusBuilding the future environmentBuilding upon existing relationshipsCentering ideasChanging attitudes Coaching Communicating as things develop Confronting change and growth Cooperating as a team member Creating an open environment Creating change Creating new relationships Deepening understanding
| Developing effective partnerships Dialoguing Disseminating information Embracing goodwill Empowering yourself & others Encountering people Encouraging activities Encouraging and sustaining an idea Encouraging further discussionEngaging the process Engaging the relationship Engaging the work to be done Enriching understandings Expressing yourself Focusing on the end-product Focusing on the issue at hand Fostering goodwill and openness Gaining new confidence Gathering information Getting to know someone Growing in new knowledge Growing issues organically Guiding the activities Holding a quiet conversation Identifying goals Improving dialogue Improving the quality of life Improving the work-ethic and atmosphere Improving relationships Influencing decisions Leading with ideas Leaving voice mails Listening Making a difference Making decisions Making organization better Managing resources Measuring standards Offering different alternatives Offering innovative possibilities Offering thanks Opening new ideas Operationalizing the ideas Overcoming an obstacle
| Prioritizing Producing practical results Promoting Proposing an ideaProviding counselProvoking action Recommending that it be done Reinvesting in abilities Relating anecdotes Renewing a sense of mission Reporting information Reshaping the concept Resolving a conflict Respecting complexity Respecting mutually Revising Revitalizing Sending notes Serving gladly Setting group goals Shaping decisions Shaping policySharing in leadership for resultsSharing informationSharing knowledgeSpending time talkingTelling a story to make a pointSummarizing brieflySupporting an activitySupporting growthSurfacing answersSurfacing differences Taking the time Talking Telling the story of what happened Thinking out loud Fine-tuning and adapting the approach Understanding advantages and disadvantagesUnderstanding the dynamicsWatching and learningWorking as a teamWorking with peopleWriting ideas and materials |
Report Findings On-the-Street Interviews |
Page 11 of eleven pages total December 7, 2000 67 REMARKS & IDEAS expressed by 67 citizens Arranged in alpha order with an ACTION WORD first
Apologize publicly when you screw up; it’s no big deal Attack no one’s motivesAttract new businessAvoid asking someone what part of town they live in Be friendly with the neighbors; smile and say hello Be more aggressive about diversity in the schools Bite the bullet and fix the parking mess Bring in a big hotel Build multiculturalism into every academic program Call citizens stakeholders Close off the street for the fun of it more often Communicate that here is a fun place to live Create networks of youth and adults working together Criticize the idea, not the person Curb your dog please Demand respect by giving respect Develop an economic master plan Do less processing and more hard work Embrace change since it happens anyway Encourage diversity more and more Ensure that schools respect difference Explain something so we understand it Figure a way to have the churches come together Get the papers to tell positive stories Go outside your group to meet someone new Have a big all-village sale day outside in July Hear our concerns with more than lip service Hire gay people to work in government Hold more community conversations
| Improve the historical museum Increase communication Increase the black and Hispanic population Install more night lights in the parksInvest in relationships of trustInvite a neighbor to attend your church and vice versa Invite an elected official to supper and to meet your kids Invite people to something they usually don’t go to Keep building on the accomplishments in integration Let the trustees out so we see who they are Lower the taxes Make connections between us and Austin Make village employees more accountable Mean inclusion when you say it Recruit new people to get involved Remember, diversity means many things to many people Remind people that fun stuff goes on in town all the time Respect differences openly and that people are all different Revive the potluck food thing Schedule similar activities together; too much duplication Set up a job bank for retirees so they can still contribute Set up schools within schools Shop in town instead of on Michigan Avenue Sponsor more park district activities Start a newcomers group and keep building on it Stop talking so much about race issues Stop treating people with accents like they are dumb Support the groups that help the homeless Talk more about race issues Talk to young people about their civic involvement Tell the agencies not to mistreat their clients Tell the police to walk more and to say hello Tell the president to smile more when she’s on TV Tolerate somebody who’s really different Vote your conscience Wake up and realize that this ain’t the 1960’s anymore Work hard to keep parents involved in the schools |