Pros Cons Cost Time to Response rate Expertise Methods complete needed Anonymous Could be biased if Low to moderate Moderate Moderate to Little to give out administered youth don’t high, depending surveys. Inexpensive surveys understand the on how it is Moderate to Easy to analyze questions or answer analyze and Standardized honestly. interpret the Easy to compare May get data. with other data incomplete data. Telephone Same as paper Same as paper More than Moderate to Moderate to Need some to surveys (above) (above) high high depending do phone (moderate to high, on how it is surveys But may allow for But those without depending on administered conducting more phones may not Moderate to number of surveys surveys and doing respond analyze and to complete) more follow-up interpret the Others may ignore data calls Focus groups Can quickly get Cannot get Inexpensive if High Moderate Requires good info about individual-level done in-house. group facilitation Groups can Typically focus attitudes, data from focus skills Can be expensive last 1.5 hours groups involve perceptions, and group. if hiring a on average only 6-8 people. Conversation social norms. Can be difficult to professional. skills Info can be used to run. Usually incentives Technical generate survey Hard to generalize are offered to get aspects can be questions. themes to larger participants learned group. relatively easily May be hard to gather 6-8 persons at the same time. Sensitive topics may be difficult to address in a focus group.
Methods Pros Cons Cost Time to complete Response rate Expertise needed surveys Anonymous Inexpensive Easy to analyze Standardized Easy to compare with other data Could be biased if youth don’t understand the questions or answer honestly. May get incomplete data. Low to moderate Moderate Moderate to high, depending on how it is administered Little to give out surveys. Moderate to analyze and interpret the data. Telephone surveys Same as paper (above) But may allow for conducting more surveys and doing more follow-up Same as paper (above) But those without phones may not respond Others may ignore calls More than (moderate to high, depending on number of surveys to complete) Moderate to high Moderate to high depending on how it is administered Need some to do phone surveys Moderate to analyze and interpret the data Focus groups Can quickly get info about attitudes, perceptions, and social norms. Info can be used to generate survey questions. Cannot get individual-level data from focus group. Can be difficult to run. Hard to generalize themes to larger group. May be hard to gather 6-8 persons at the same time. Sensitive topics may be difficult to address in a focus group. Inexpensive if done in-house. Can be expensive if hiring a professional. Usually incentives are offered to get participants High Groups can last 1.5 hours on average Moderate Typically focus groups involve only 6-8 people. Requires good group facilitation skills Conversation skills Technical aspects can be learned relatively easily
GTO_Homelessness_Manual.docx