Implementation

Data collection

As a CODES group, we are working with the community organization Heartlands Conservancy. My groups overall project question is “how can we get young adults ages 18-25 engaged in water conservation and conservation volunteering?”. We are all currently working on our own projects within this question. For my project, to collect data, I decided to conduct interviews with volunteers at Heartlands Conservancy events. I chose to conduct interviews because I am familiar with the process, and I wanted to get in- person experience and a sense of heart-warming conversation with the volunteers. I attended a monarch tagging event hosted by Heartlands Conservancy, which we are currently partnered with, and interviewed the volunteers there. During the event we were all separated into groups which allowed me to pull some of my group members away to interview them. I asked 10 questions and most of my questions were based on how much knowledge the person has on water conservation and what could encourage them to become more involved. I tried my best to make my questions brief. Although most of the people I volunteered weren’t in our goal age range, I still received a lot of responses. I interviewed seven individuals. The youngest I interviewed was 35 and the oldest was 76 and they were all females. The interviews took about three mins each and most of the responses were based off interactions with the real world, which I enjoyed hearing. I did at least want to interview one male but again, there weren’t many there and the ones that were didn’t want to participate in my interviews. Overall, the goal of my project was to get a better understanding the disconnection between water conservation and youth. 

Preliminary Analysis

While conducting my interviews, I learned many different things. The codes that I used for analyzing my interviews are time management, work, education, background, and impact on the communities. I learned that the most common answer was time when I asked, “what’s the biggest obstacle stopping you from volunteering at events like this?” Most of my interviewees work full-time jobs, which doesn’t help with their availability to participate in these events. I had one individual say that she must find a babysitter to participate in these events. She stated “Oh, um, probably having a kid. You need to find a babysitter and if it catches his interests, if there’s, like, kid friendly things to do at the events, then I’ll be happy to bring them along cause then it can be entertained while being there”. 

Another response that was most common was the individual’s background that attracted them to participate in water conservation. I asked, “is there something about the way you grew up or your background that brought you here today?” Many did speak about how either their relatives encouraged them or that they participated in the event because they grew up during a generation that didn’t have technology, so they had no choice but to explore. 

Many individuals also stated that education is another obstacle. One stated “I think it would be great for people to learn, you know, how to properly water their lawn because it uses so much clean water clean drinkable water. So, we need to, you know, educate people about how to be more aware of what how much water is being used in different ways to make to conserve water” and another also stated, “I guess education, getting the word outward of mouth from other people”. 

During my project, I also asked the individuals “what do you think would encourage people to come to these events’. One specific response stood out to me the most. The individual stated “Getting it out there, social media, photos. I also interviewed the CEO about getting children involved, going to classrooms and showing them pictures and maybe having field trips. That follows up with the next question which was about what could be done to address issues.? In my opinion, based on what I have learned through these interviews, I feel what could be done to address this issue is broadcasting the events and the importance behind the events on social media. Especially for the audience that we are trying to target. 

Overall, I interviewed individuals that weren’t in my target age group. The youngest I interviewed was 35 and the oldest was 76. Because of this, I did have many limitations. In a way, I feel like some responses some young adults wouldn’t relate to such as the whole babysitter intervention. This defeated the purpose of my project; however, I made the most out of it and I think I still gained information. For example, maybe one way to encourage students to participate in it is to useinvolve social media.