Ethnography Summary
Wen-Cong Toh interviewed John, a new client of Imani Unidad, before a peer to peer support group meeting.
John has recently been released (a few months ago) after spending a year in jail for burglary. He was convinced to go to this meeting by family, friends, and his social worker.
Date: 3/8/17
Type: Individual Interview
Location: Imani Unidad
Team participants: Conducted interview alone
User Characteristics:
He is an African American male in his late 20’s, unemployed, and living with his mother. He has three kids (spread out in different homes), but only gets to see them once or twice a month.
What is this person about – what drives him/her? He is driven to make a change in his life, get a job, and move out of his mom’s home into his own place. He wants to make these changes for his kids, as he wants more access/time with them; he plans on bringing them all under the same roof in the future.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? Not getting to see or spend time with his kids. He is embarrassed about his past mistakes and is apparently not in a healthy environment in his mom’s home.
Memorable quotes from interview:
“My kids are everything to me man. That’s why I’m doing all of this, I’m also taking an interview class to help me find a job. But it’s so hard, if it weren’t for the kids, I would’ve quit.”
“I think this group is going to help. It’ll be cool to hear everyone’s stories and help each other out.”
“I haven’t really started looking for housing yet because I just have no money right now. I gotta find a job first. Going to jail was a low point, I’m learning, I gotta focus on what’s important”
Top 3 Learnings:
- Going to prison was the low point of John’s life (thus far), He didn’t really think about how it would affect his family or kids until it was too late. If it weren’t for his mom’s help, he would be living on the streets right now.
- John blamed his incarceration on hanging around the wrong crowd and having bad influences since he was a child. No one has ever showed or taught him that he had an option to determine his own future, and not fall down the same paths of gangs/drugs/crime as his cousins and “friends”.
- It is very hard to stay motivated to turn your life around without goals like John’s desire to get more visitation with his children and earn back their trust. A support system is also critical.
Key Insights – (1) Imani Unidad must try to reach at-risk individuals, so that they realize that they do have a choice about which path to take. We shouldn’t wait until these individuals hit rock-bottom before helping them. (2) Goal-setting is very important and needs to be emphasized/taught to clients.
Activities:
- Attends peer-to-peer group at Imani Unidad.
- Taking a class to learn how to search and interview for classes.
- Living with mother, but trying to find his own place.
Environment
- Toxic, with many bad influences.
- Growing support group.
Interactions:
- Hopefully with peers at Imani Unidad, where they can keep each other motivated and on track.
- With potential employers and landlords.
- With his support group, friends and family (primarily his kids).
Objects:
- Transportation
- Phone