LSU Post-Hurricane Katrina

Community Survey

 

Welcome Volunteers!

 

 

#1 – Before you Come to New Orleans

 

 

A.   Organize an Afternoon/Evening Team Meeting in your own hometown to familiarize yourselves with the survey, before you come to New Orleans.

 

At the meeting, you will read through the survey, do a practice run with another volunteer, and then phone a New Orleans resident and do the survey with them.

 

This will do several useful things –

 

  • Just reading the questionnaire will give a feel for issues that New Orleans residents have to deal with every day.

 

  • You’ll become familiar with the questionnaire, so you don’t stumble when you do the interview.  Then, you’ll be able to focus on the person you’re talking to.

 

  • You’ll know more about what to expect when you arrive in New Orleans. 

 

  • You’ll help New Orleans churches and neighborhood associations help their members, and you’ll help disaster-recovery research.

 

 

B.   Before You Begin –

 

Read the rest of this page before you do your first interview.

 

  1. Read through the materials you will use, to familiarize yourself with them. 

 

  1. Read through the survey. 

 

    • A version printable on paper, is available here. 

 

  1. Read through the introductory text, below.  You’ll use this as the introduction to the interview, instead of the introduction on the paper or web.

 

  1. Practice the survey with another volunteer.  (Important!) 

 

    • Pair up, and each person do the interview with the other.  Then trade places and do it again. 

 

  1. Decide if you want to do the survey on paper or on the internet.  (They are the same.)

 

    • If you are comfortable using the internet, we prefer that you use it.  It will save a step in data entry, and there are no paper questionnaires to lose.  (The links are given below.)

 

    • If you prefer using the paper version, or you don’t have a convenient internet connection, feel free! 

 

o   Please make a good, clear copy of the questionnaire, because we will scan it into the computer to input the results.

 

o   If you do the survey on paper, please bring the completed surveys with you to New Orleans and give them to Your Organization, or you can mail them to LSU at:

 

LSU Katrina Survey

Department of Sociology, LSU

126 Stubbs Hall

Baton Rouge, LA 70803

225-578-1645

 

  1. We’ll give you phone numbers for New Orleans community members to do the interview with.

 

 

When you are ready, call a community member and begin the survey…

 

 

A.   Read this Introduction to the community member on the phone –

 

[Note: Modify parts in red below, according to your circumstances.]

 

Hi, my name is [First Name].  I’m a student volunteer with the XYZ Church in Akron, Ohio.  We are coming to New Orleans next week to help with recovery.  We’re partnering with Your Organization in New Orleans.  We’re going to gut houses, clean yards and work with community members.  Before we come, we’re calling community members to educate ourselves a little more about people’s experiences and needs.  Your Organization gave us your number to talk with.

 

We’re also partnering with LSU to do a survey.  They will make the results available to community churches and community organizations to help with their members’ recovery. 

 

Can I do the survey with you? 

 

1.    [If no]  Okay, I understand.  We’re still coming to New Orleans next week, and we hope it will do some good!  [End Interview]

 

2.    [If yes]  Great!  I’m supposed to tell you a couple things before we start.  All your answers are completely confidential, and you are free to skip any question or to end the survey at any point.  LSU will not release personally identifying information; and they will report results only in aggregate, percentaged form. 

 

If you have questions about the survey or respondents’ rights, I can tell you who to contact. 

 

[Do not volunteer this information, but continue on with the survey.  If they want to know, give them only the contact information they ask for:]

 

[Questions about the survey:] You can contact the LSU Sociology Department at 126 Stubbs Hall, tel. 225-578-1645.  Tell them you have a question about the LSU Katrina Survey.

 

[Questions about respondents’ rights:] You can contact Robert C. Mathews, Chairman of the Institutional Review Board at LSU, at 203 B-1 David Boyd Hall, tel. 225-578-8692.

 

 

B.   After Reading the Introduction –

 

·         If you are doing the survey on paper, ask –

 

My first question is, did you live in Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck?  [If no:]  Which Parish did you live in? 

 

1.    [For Orleans, Jefferson, or Plaquemines Parishes, begin the survey with question 1]

 

o   Note: Do not read the introduction to the survey on the paper version, but start with Question 1.

 

2.    [If another Parish:]  We’re not doing interviews for people who lived in [Parish named], but thank you very much!  [End Interview]

 

 

·         If you are doing the survey on the internet, ask –

 

My first question is, did you live in Orleans Parish when Hurricane Katrina struck?  [If no:]  Which Parish did you live in? 

 

o   Click on the Parish they say, below, to begin the survey. 

 

o   Note: Do not read the introduction to the survey on the next web page, but go right to the first question.

 

o   Note: Near the end of the survey, where it asks “how did you answer this survey,” write in “Your Organization.”

 

1.    For Orleans, Jefferson, or Plaquemines Parishes, click here to begin the survey

 

2.    For St. Bernard Parish, click here to begin the survey

 

3.    For St. Tammany Parish, click here to begin the survey

 

4.    [If Another Parish:]  We’re not doing interviews for people who lived in [Parish named], but thank you very much!  [End Interview]

 

 

 

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