Ethnography Summary
Victoria Velasquez immersed herself in the life of a guy named T’Andre whom she met at a Peer2Peer Group meeting at Imani Unidad.
Date: 3/8/17
Type: Immersion
Location: Imani Unidad office space downtown
Team participants: Grace, Wen Cong, and Wendy were also in attendance but Victoria talked to T’Andre alone
User Characteristics:
Male, age 20
Released from incarceration four weeks ago
He was locked up for committing an armed robbery
He was 14 years old when he first got locked up
He has friends who have also been sent to jail and some friends who have died from gang violence
He faces some uncertainty in his life as this girl he was seeing is pregnant but she’s not sure if he’s the father
What is this person about – what drives him/her? T’Andre is driven by his younger brothers. He didn’t have a fatherly figure growing up or a good role model from his older cousins, so he wants to be that figure for his siblings. He makes sure they do their homework and makes sure they are getting to sports practice after school.
What is this person’s biggest point of pain? He has a history of incarceration and cannot secure a job. He has applied everyday for the past two weeks and has not heard any positive news back.
Memorable quote from interview: “I was never good at sports so I wasn’t interested in any of that.” “I couldn’t get home at 3:00 am so I just stayed out and walked the streets.” “I know this sounds weird, but I’m glad I went away for four years. I needed that.” “I have plans A, B, and C and when they don’t work out I just try again.” When told that he should be proud of the way he is trying to turn his life around he replied, “Thank you. Ain’t nobody ever told me that before.”
Top 3 Learnings:
- He’s the oldest sibling and wants to be a role model for his younger siblings to give them someone to look up to, which is something he never had.
- Because he didn’t think he was good at sports he quit and got involved in bad activities on the street (drugs and crime).
- He has been in and out of jail since we has 14 years old.
Key Insight – (1) People get involved in bad things because they don’t know any different and they don’t have good role models to look up to and see the way a teenager should really be behaving. (2) Had he not gone to jail for four years, he would’ve had no motivation to change his life around.
Activities:
- Got to Imani Unidad in Downtown South Bend
- Looked around for Debra and found her in the basement
- Went upstairs and found the Peer2Peer group meeting
- Joined them for dinner but didn’t eat
- Started talking to two young men but one wasn’t very interested in talking, so only carried out the conversation with one of them
- Talked with T’Andre for 30 minutes
- Transitioned into group circle
- Shared with the group something that I had accomplished in the week and something that was holding me back
Environment
- Wednesday evening
- Room had chairs and tables, which were then moved to form a circle of chairs
- The room was loud during dinner and conversations
- The room had an uncomfortable feeling because there were a lot of new members to the Peer2Peer group and there were some obvious outsiders
- The meeting was a safe space, which made people more comfortable sharing details about their lives
Interactions:
- At first I was only talking to the other members of my team (Wen Cong and Grace)
- Then I started talking to another familiar face—intern Andy
- I walked around and tried to listen in on some people’s conversations amongst themselves
- Eventually I introduced myself to two young men
- I sat down at a table to the left of their seats
- One of the guys was much more open to talking than the other one, so I carried on a conversation with that one
- Debra came in and got the group meeting started
- Each person in the circle had to speak in front of the group
- After each person spoke the group clapped for them
Objects:
- Tables and chairs
- Notepad and pen
Users:
- Debra, Baye, Andy
- Some other counselors
- Peer2Peer group members spanning a lot of different ages and a mix of men and women
- Another ND group with about four students
- Grace, Wen Cong, Wendy, and Victoria