Recruitment/outreach of community advocate and expanding the database

[bradyse]

Overview

• We need to expand the community advocate recruitment to get people to complete the screener survey and/or sign-up for the (one-on-one, in-depth,qualitative) Interviews

• We need to recruit 5 research participants (community advocates) to assess the needs and pain points of this persona as we re-design the website based on CKAN

Action Items

• Based on the methodology, finalize on recruiting 5 research participants for first round of one-on-one user interviews (to develop on this community advocate persona)
• Reach out to HfLA Citizen Engagement Project Managers
• Ask PMs to provide us contact info to add to our spreadsheet.
• (Ongoing) Add NGO contacts to Spreadsheet
  - [ ] Recruit Research Participant 1
  - [ ] Recruit Research Participant 2
  - [ ] Recruit Research Participant 3
  - [ ] Recruit Research Participant 4
  - [ ] Recruit Research Participant 5
  - [ ] Complete and finalize recruiting all 5 research participants and close issue

Resources/Instructions

Citizen Engagement Projects
Community Activist Recruitment #184
Email Recruitment Message

Short Recruitment Message

Are you a Community Activist? Access the Data 📊 team is looking for community-minded people to interview and connect with to learn more about accessibility to city data. ✍🏿 This 2-minute Screener Survey will be used to gain insights for building out an easy-to-navigate website of LA's open data resources. 🏙 Information from this screener will be used internally and anonymously. Thank you for your participation! 😎😄

[bradyse]

Notes from AJ:

Citizen Engagement
https://www.hackforla.org/citizen-engagement
311 Data
16.8: Broaden and strengthen the awareness and participation of City and local communities, especially those traditionally underserved and marginalized, in the institutions of local and global governance.
PM: Eric Cho
Research Lead:
Access the Data
16.8: Broaden and strengthen the awareness and participation of City and local communities, especially those traditionally underserved and marginalized, in the institutions of local and global governance.
PM:
Research Lead:
Engage
16.8: Broaden and strengthen the awareness and participation of City and local communities, especially those traditionally underserved and marginalized, in the institutions of local and global governance.
PM: Bryon Heart
Research Lead:
Lucky Parking
11.2: By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.
PM: Gordon Ruby
Research Lead:
Open Community Survey
16.8: Broaden and strengthen the awareness and participation of City and local communities, especially those traditionally underserved and marginalized, in the institutions of local and global governance.
PM:
Research Lead:

[bradyse]

Reached out on Slack to

• Eric Cho (311 Data)
• Byron Heart (Engage)
• Greg Pawin (Lucky Parking)
• Kalyani Raman (Open Community Survey)

Asked them if they were the PM for the HfLA Project, explained that ATD needs to send out a screener survey to community activists, and whether or not they had specific people in mind to whom we could send our survey.

[bradyse]

Responses:

• Eric Cho (311 Data) - Planning an outreach campaign to onboard stakeholders for some alpha testing on the site, but that won’t be happening until after the summer
• Byron Heart (Engage) - No response
• Greg Pawin (Lucky Parking) - Project is in between PMs and they don't know enough about the project to provide contacts
• Kalyani Raman (Open Community Survey) - Said that Kalyani and Ambareen are PMs, asked Bonnie to provide contact info

[bradyse]

• No leads with other HfLA Projects involved with Community Engagement.
• 311 Data may have some additional information to share after the summer.
• Reached out to EmpowerLA as part of the issue Community Activist Screener Survey Recruitment #184.

[mmelovega]

On the Research meeting (07/1272022) Sara, Aparna, Mariana and Hannah discussed the need to expand the spreadsheet with the NGO contacts to send the survey.

[bradyse]

@mxajPrice @lrchang2

Could one of you please send out our recruitment message on Twitter like how you did with the Data Expert screener survey? See the resources/instructions for the text. Thank you!

[Aparna1Gopal]

Working Notes for @Aparna1Gopal

Expand Community Activist Recruitment Database– Extract names from Liberty Hill Project (https://www.libertyhill.org/how-we-work/grantmaking/rising-activists/) , Add name of Non-profit to the Spreadsheet- Email the contact person from ATD’s website with Screener Survey – Wait for response – Dual purpose of: Expanding the recruitment database and also outreach for potential interview participants

[lrchang2]

@bradyse the recruitment message is long for twitter and will have to be split into a chain of tweets if we want to keep all the content. consider revising to be shorter?

[bradyse]

@lrchang2, how does this work for you? I shortened it to 280 characters.

Are you a Community Activist? Access the Data team is looking for community-minded people to interview to learn more about accessibility to city data. This 2-min survey will be used to gain insights for building out an easy-to-navigate website. https://forms.gle/tUAAj53DhRKS6cMM6

[lrchang2]

@bradyse that works! do you want to add an @ to the Hack for LA twitter or a hashtag for better reach? We have 11 characters to do that
example below if we add '@ hackforla'

[bradyse]

@lrchang2 Yes, if it fits, then I would be in favor of that. Thank you so much!

[lrchang2]

here is the tweet https://twitter.com/accessthedata/status/1547382221681598464

[bradyse]

Updates

• Tweeted at EmpowerLA
• Sent a couple more emails from recruitment sheet

[bradyse]

Updates

• Sent recruitment message to Christine (from another HfLA project) for her to share with her colleagues. She works within a department of academics who are very active with community initiatives.
• @lrchang2, @mxajPrice, and @mmelovega: Within the next few weeks, I will need to be offboarded from AtD. So I'm giving you a heads up. The HfLA Internship project is taking up a lot of my time, and I would like to devote more to that project. Plus, my full time job (teaching) will start back up at the end of August.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

Draft used on Calendly Link: (Image also attached)

accessthedata project

Access the Data_User Interview
1 hr

Thank you for your interest in chatting with us regarding your community based work!

We look forward to deep diving into your community advocacy. And also understanding the role of data (if any) on your social impact.

More Information:
https://www.hackforla.org/projects/access-the-data.html
https://github.com/hackforla/access-the-data/

Draft of Email used:

SUBJECT: Help community advocates access the data

Hello [NAME],

Hope you are well! I am [NAME], a UX Researcher at Hack for LA, a brigade of Code for America. We want to talk to you about how you can use data to impact your work and community.

We are developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work and social impact.

If you're interested in helping us develop a free resource to help people make data-driven decisions that impact their communities, please sign up here for a 30 minute Zoom call.

Looking forward to hearing back from you,

Thank You!
[NAME]

---

More details:

🌐 This project is 100% open-source, transparent and community-led.
Our workflow is available online at our GitHub Repository.
As we do our research, we will be adding our synthesized data onto the Access the Data Wiki.
All names and personal information will be excluded from the published data.

Here is the one-sheet with more details on this project’s mission and goals.

---

Calendly Link Sample (Access the Data email account)

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

• Using the resources/non-profits identified in https://www.libertyhill.org/organizations/ for outreach

• Since other UXRs are working on social media strategy for outreach (LinkedIn, Twitter), currently using Access the Data email for outreach.

• Expanded database by adding potential community activists. Some community advocates seemed to preferred Twitter, will explore this in the coming days in addition to Email as an outreach strategy from my end.

[Aparna1Gopal]

@lrchang2 Could you please Tweet our recruitment message to the people listed on our Spreadsheet working for 'Alliance for Community Transit – Los Angeles'. They have only Twitter listed as their contact and their handles are documented in the spreadsheet (Listed under: Director roles and Mid-level roles). Many thanks!

(Note: The potential research participants are not mentioned by name in this thread to maintain privacy and adhering to IRB's requirements/good practices of research ethics and privacy while working with research participants)

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

UX Lead Mariana M and UXRs Hannah S and Aparna G worked collaboratively/ in real-time on this issue at todays's UXR meeting:

• ATD Calendly account was set up previously by UXR Lead and PM
• We set up the Community Advocates User Interviews Calendly Event. Provided a wide timeframe for participants to sign up for interviews (7AM-9PM), Monday through Saturday. We were able to cover a wide time-frame due to us being placed in different time-zones.
• Updated the Calendly link on our Recruitment and Outreach Message (google dec)
• Mariana M posted our recruitment message on various Hack for LA Community of Practice channels
• Mariana M will be posting our recruitment message on various Hack for LA Community of Practice channels as well

Resources:

Google Doc Recruitment message/template:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IXu9rG2X-5Jx01zxp6MuSpZwQzJ09HYMvgdQGA-2hXQ/edit?pli=1

Calendly Link:
https://calendly.com/accessthedata/chatting-about-your-community-work

Slack Recruitment Message
Hello!
Are you or someone in your network a community advocate who works with data? The Access the Data team is developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work.
If you’re interested in helping us out, please sign up here for a 15-20 minute Zoom call.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

Sara B (ex-UXR at ATD Team) had reached out to Christine O (via email) from a different Hack for LA team to circulate our Recruitment message. Christine O has responded asking if we are still recruiting. Since we are, the most recent and current recruitment/outreach message has been sent to be circulated amongst this contact's colleagues and network.

Recruitment Message:
(a slightly different iteration, since this is going to be circulated by a contact)

Our Recruitment Message

Hello!
Are you or someone in your network a community advocate who works with data? The Access the Data team is developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work.
If you’re interested in helping us out, please sign up here for a 15-20 minute Zoom call.

More details:

🌐 This project is 100% open-source, transparent and community-led.
Our workflow is available online at our GitHub Repository.
As we do our research, we will be adding our synthesized data onto the Access the Data Wiki.
All names and personal information will be excluded from the published data.

Here is the one-sheet with more details on this project’s mission and goals.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:
Twitter 'General Tweet' messaging

Tweet Chain:

Tweet 1:
Hello! Are you or someone in your network a community advocate who works with data? Our team is developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work.
If you are interested in helping us out, we would love to talk to you! 👋😊

Tweet 2:
Please sign up here for a 15-20 minute Zoom call:
https://calendly.com/accessthedata/chatting-about-your-community-work

Tweet 2 or 3 (may or may not include it, depending on how heavy or light the messaging looks on Twitter)
More details: 🌐 This project is 100% open-source, transparent and community-led.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:
Draft of Twitter Message - DM or @direct tweett:

@[NAME] Hello! I am a UX Researcher at Hack for LA, a brigade of Code for America. Our team is developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work. If you are interested in helping us out, we would love to talk to you!
(Note:Use hashtags # with this message moving forward, for better outreach) (Examples: community activist, social activist, community advocate etc)

Please sign up here for a 15-20 minute Zoom call:
https://calendly.com/accessthedata/chatting-about-your-community-work

[Aparna1Gopal]

@lrchang2 Update:

I did manage to log into AtD's Twitter account. The following were completed using AtD's Twitter account:

• Tweeted general recruitment/outreach message to all
• Sent direct tweets to potential community advocates (research participants)
• Also did some addditonal branding on AtD's Twitter profile, to make it more catchy and interesting. To be able to grab more eyeballs as we recruit for research participants using Twitter (added a cover picture, completed details of AtD website, location, Bio etc.)

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

For outreach and recruitment:

• Followed https://www.libertyhill.org on Twitter for wider outreach of our recruitment message.
• Signed up accessthedata@hackforla.org email ID to www.libertyhill.org's 'Join the Movement' to stay updated on the local community activism related activities taking place in the Los Angeles area.
• Tweeted to Liberty Hill org as well, hoping to reach their wide network of community activist followers

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

@hannahsgr @Aparna1Gopal

Based on the UX All-Team meeting on 09/21/2022 and feedback from PMs: the Action Items have been updated to reflect a start and end task to this issue, instead of keeping it as an ongoing, ever-expanding database issue (as it was initially scoped/planned by prior researchers working on this recruitment project since April'22)

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:
From @Aparna1Gopal

Slack message communication:
To Mariana M and Hannah S: We just got a community advocate sign-up on our Calendly for a user interview! The participant has signed up for September 22nd, so we need to scramble to prep for the interview! I am sending you both a private message with the details, for data privacy! CC: Lucy C, ajPrice, Bailey K

Update: The participant does not fit into the community advocate persona we are currently seeking. Based on feedback from UXR Lead and team, we have decided to pass on this one.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

• Outreach and recruitment email sent to 5 community advocates

• Expanded and recorded the details of the community advocates in the database (spreadsheet)

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

Spoke to Sara B (UXR Lead TWE'22/ Internship Project, & ATD Alumni) regarding community network she may know in Nebraska. Will confirm with PMs during this week's team meeting and if this network (outside Los Angeles) is okayed, will sent our recruitment message to Sara B via email.

[Aparna1Gopal]

Notes:

• Posted a new message on Twitter for community outreach. Message recorded below.
• Used hashtags this time to gain more traction. A short info regarding hashtag activism is also shared below (on the importance of using hashtags as an outreach/activism tool)

Information on Hashtag Activism

Twitter Post
Hello! Our team is developing a free resource so that community advocates like you can use open-source data in their work. If you are interested in helping us out, we would love to talk to you! 👋😊
#community #activism #activist #neighborhood #Communitymanager

Please sign up here for a 15-20 minute Zoom call:
https://calendly.com/accessthedata/chatting-about-your-community-work?month=2022-10

[Aparna1Gopal]

@lrchang2 @mxajPrice @bkong @hannahsgr

Notes:

Based on meeting with PM Lucy C on October 13, 2022 this is being closed.

• The project is currently pivoting in a new direction based on the current requirements of Access the Data. This includes ATD’s Website redesign based on CKAN incorporation and pivoting from the prior education modules model

• The personas (data expert and community activist) were developed during the education modules iteration of the project. The idea of creating a database of a research participant pool of data experts and community activists were also formulated during this stage of the project.

• UX Researchers (prior & current) working on this issue have utilized multiple methods for outreach and recruiting research participants: including internal HfLA Slack, external Slack groups, Twitter, Email, cold calling etc. with links to Calendly for interview sign-up

• UX Researchers (prior & current) working on this issue have also expanded the database of potential community advocates & data experts over the course of 6+ months.

• With the current restructuring of the team and the vision for the ATD website moving forward, LinkedIn poll is being used as a new strategy for participant recruitment Create a poll for LinkedIn #229. This will also be used as a strategy to conduct new generative research to identify other persona types who will be potential users of ATD website & CKAN.

• The important details from this issue will be transferred to ATD’s Wiki by the PMs.