Primary Research findingsSavannah Hardwick

For my primary research, I created a questionnaire using the website Survey Monkey. On this questionnaire I asked

questions about the age of the person, the sex, their knowledge of SASH, there opinions on homeless people and others. I targeted my

questionnaires at a variety of people, hoping that I would get a variety of ages and opinions.

I used a number of platforms to publish my questionnaire, including social networking sites

such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as contacting friends and family in order to get

them to complete the questionnaire.

Question 1 The first question I

asked was ‘what is your age?’ this was a very important question for me so I wanted to ask it first, its important because I wanted to see how many people out of the target age of 16-24 had completed the questionnaire. When looking at the answers I can see that 12 out of the 14 people who answered the questionnaire. That means that 85.71% were in the age group I was targeting.

Question 2The second question I

then asked was ‘what is your gender’. This question was a way for me to see which gender group were more likely to answer the questions. 11 out of 14 people were female. This showed me that 78.57% of the people who completed the survey were female and that 21.43% were male.

Question 3The third question I then asked was an opinion

based question asking ‘what are your opinions of homeless people’. For this I got a large variety of answers;- ‘They are annoying’- ‘I don't really have an opinion because I don't personally know anyone who's homeless.’- ‘Feel sorry for them, although they all seem to have a different story’- ‘I feel that mostly it should be avoidable with all the help available and that homeless people don't do enough to avoid their extreme situation’.

These are just 4 of the opinions presented in the answers given, you can see how the range from people thinking that homeless people are just annoying and some that think that they have had to deal with a lot and that there should be more help for them,

Question 4 The fourth question asked

‘do you think that being homeless is a choice?’ 35.71% of people thought that yes, being homeless was a choice, whereas 64.29% thought that homelessness was something that no one would chose. There was then an option for the people to elaborate further on their answers, some said that ‘everyone deserves a chance to try and have a home, therefore homeless people shouldn’t be an exception.’ whereas some said ‘no one would chose to be homeless’.

Question 5

The fifth question that was asked was ‘where would you go if you were suddenly homeless?’. This questioned gave options but also allowed the person answering to suggest there own options. 50% of the people said they would go to a families house, 28.47% said a friends house, 7.14% said a hostel and 14.29% said that they would approach a homeless charity for help.

Question 6

For the sixth question I asked ‘do you know anyone who has ever been homeless?’ 35.71% answered yes, that they did know someone who had been or was homeless and 64.29%said no they didn’t. this is a good piece of information to have because it shows how many people are aware of friends/family that are/were homeless.

Question 7

The seventh question asked was ‘would you support a homeless charity?’. The answers to this were 42.86% of people said that no, they wouldn’t support a homeless charity and 57.14% said that they would. They were hen given an option to elaborate on their answers, which is where they said:-’its for a good cause so of course id support it’-’I’m worried that giving money to homeless charities doesn’t do as much as what supporting other charities do’

These answers show how people have mixed knowledge about what supporting a homeless charity will do.

Question 8

I then asked if ‘you would help a homeless person’. This question then showed that 71.43% of the people would only help a homeless person if they knew who they were, 35.71% would help regardless of if they knew them or not and 7.14% wouldn’t help them at all. There was an option to expand on their answers,1 person wrote’ It depends, I know it must be very difficult but I would only help a reliable looking homeless person for example someone not drinking, or someone very young and helpless who may not know how to go about getting help’.

Question 9

For the ninth question, I asked them if they had ever heard about my client, the homeless youth charity SASH. For this question, 50% of the people had heard of them and 50% had not. This is good because it shows how SASH I known by half of the people I asked, who were mostly in their target age range of 16-24.

Question 10The tenth and final

question I asked was ‘would you allow a homeless person lodge in your house for the night’. 28.57% said that they would and 71.43% said no. they were then asked to say why, I got replies such as;-’ No. not unless i know them, they are a complete stranger regardless if they are homeless or not, you dont know what they could be like.’-’if I knew them then perhaps for a few nights, but I have a big family so..’

Conclusion In conclusion, I have discovered that 50% of the

people who answered my questionnaire ere aware of who SASH were and what they did as a charity. I also discovered that people were very wary of letting homeless people lodge in their homes, but if they knew who the homeless person was then they would let them stay there without questioning it. This questionnaire also showed that people were aware of homeless charities, and if they needed to would use them to find a safe place to stay. I also discovered that people would be willing to help support a homeless charity if they knew hat the donations went towards. I also think that using social media networks were a good way of targeting people in the 16-24 age range because people of that age spend a lot of time on either Facebook or twitter, or other things similar to it.