Update on Project Activities:
Over the past week we have been working on the following:
We have also been adjusting to a delay in our timeline. Only 25 businesses out of 38 microenterprises selected to receive funds are fully approved (a process which involves the businesses submitting documents and the financial partner verifying eligibility). Originally, Alex had intended for the money to be distributed before we began our study so that we could use surveys and interviews to assess the success of the program. What We Observed and Learned/ Critical Analysis: As we navigated major changes throughout these first weeks, we found that communication is crucial. Our timeline was delayed but we are making the best of our extra time to improve our survey. During a discussion with our project team this week, it was apparent that we are outsiders to this community. From this discussion and Sherry Arnstein’s “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” we realized we must establish credibility and trust before going further. Alex will introduce the study and our group to these businesses. This introduction will make members of the community feel comfortable with their participation. We also analyzed the questions from the perspective of the business owners and edited questions that were too personal or too difficult to answer considering the varied circumstances of the survey respondents. The section in “Introduction to Oral History” titled “Composing Questions” helped us understand the ethical and emotional implications of our questions. We will also use documents such as the Milpitas Economic Development Strategy, to strengthen our community understanding. Additionally, while we hope that the Milpitas microenterprise community will participate in this study, we understand that it is not a priority for them. Therefore, it is our responsibility to make the survey clear and accessible so that it is not another burden. We also talked briefly about language diversity. Though we discovered that many members of our team are fluent or proficient in another language, we cannot cover the full range of languages spoken by microenterprise owners in Milpitas. Principles of participatory or community planning, lead us to recognize the value of a broad variety of knowledge obtained from all stakeholders. Ideally, we would find additional partners in the community that could assist us in interviewing and surveying groups we might miss. In the context of this project, we must acknowledge where our own capabilities fall short and focus on including as many viewpoints as possible. This is especially important as we begin to prepare for interviews and draft our questions. Moving Forward: Our work here has only just begun. While we have been able to develop an initial draft of the survey, we now know that there are certain ethical details and questions of participation that we did not fully consider. Consequently, this coming week we will edit our survey to make its purpose clearer, make it more accessible, and make it more inclusive. We will ensure that the language we use is inviting and encouraging so that the businesses feel supported rather than interrogated. We hope that by the following week we will be able to distribute our survey to the 38 businesses selected to receive the grant. Once the survey has been sent out and our initial contact with the grantees has been established, we are looking to build a base of trust with these enterprises so that we can conduct more productive interviews in the near future. Above all, we hope that these microenterprises have the financial, technical, and personal support they need to overcome these tough times. Comments are closed.
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