Page 44 - LTHC Publics Catalog, Spring 2018 Update

THROUGH THE LENS (ENGL 419 Project)

Introduction

Goals

The goal of this project served two major functions. The first goal was to perform research for the LTHC staff
and directors on the general disposition of the guests in which they serve. Case managers and other LTHC staff
sometimes do not have full access to residents in permanent supportive housing, so this kind of in-depth, narrative
research serves to close some of the knowledge gaps surrounding this group of clients. Next, we aimed to highlight
ways that LTHC serves this population and might continue to improve their services. This project was completed by
implementing new qualitative research methods to help better understand and serve the homeless population in the
Greater Lafayette community.
Research Questions

To better visualize goals and craft the prompts and questions we wanted to ask, we developed a set of overarching
research questions:

1. What struggles, both large and small, do residents of permanent supportive housing face in their daily life?

2. What resources do residents use? Which resources are most valuable, and which ones are needed?
These questions were an amalgamation of the concerns of LTHC staff and the things that we, as a group, thought
would be helpful to research. We felt these questions were broad enough to lead us in several different directions and
address various knowledge gaps concerning residents of permanent supportive housing, but also narrowed our indi-
vidual photo prompts and focus group questions. These questions were used to pinpoint daily issues the participants
face that LTHC may be able to address.

Expectations

Going into this project with little experience in qualitative research methods, and having only recently been intro-
duced to the issue of homelessness in Tippecanoe County, our class was unsure what to expect. However, we hoped
to gain a better understanding of not only this research method and the process behind multimedia studies, but to
learn about LTHC permanent supportive housing residents and their experiences on a day to day basis. We expected
to gain insight into the lives of the clients, not only from their photos but also from the focus groups conducted after
the photos were collected. Our class also expected that the data we collect to not only benefit the staff at LTHC but
also to be expanded upon with further research from the ENGL 41900 classes during future semesters.

Introduction to the Photovoice Method

Photovoice is a modern research method where participants are asked to take pictures from their lives in response
to prompts that are provided by researchers. The photos taken by the participants represent their interpretation of
the prompts, as well as their unique perspectives. These images provide a great insight into their lives and their daily
success and struggles. These images are then used as memory aids and as responses to prompts during a focus group
session. These sessions allow the participants to provide more details about their personal narratives and the images
they have captured. In order to obtain a rich, unique and detailed account of the participants’ experiences we chose
to use a combination of the photovoice method and focus groups.

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