Discussion Guide for Facilitators

Discussion Guide for Program Facilitators

• Tell me about yourself.

• Role in organization

• Experience providing services/facilitating classes for the target population

• Interest in social services/government work

• Interest in healthy marriage and family strengthening

• Ethnic/cultural background, country of origin, length of time in U.S., language preference

• Perception of importance of having a similar background or characteristics as the participants

• Tell me about your classroom.

• Where you meet and how often

• What it looks like, how you make it feel welcoming

• Your teaching style, how you get participants involved

• How a classroom experience unfolds (greetings, lesson, group work, videos, concluding events) and the setting

• Tenor of the class—participant engagement, what participants like, what they do not like

• Influence of homogeneity or heterogeneity of participants (ethnicities, country of origin, acculturation, language) on curriculum delivery

• Tell me about the curriculum/a

• How/why it was selected

• How lessons progress (what aspect is taught when)

• Appropriateness for target population, adaptations made or needed

• How material is presented (didactic, role play, other)

• How you tell whether participants are understanding the information; adaptations made as needed

• Your impression of whether participants liked the classes

• Any issues surrounding cultural differences in normative behaviors, attitudes, or roles and how these are addressed

• Any adaptations made to materials and/or delivery and why

• Tell me about information collected about participants

  • Assess/measure knowledge gained, attitude changes, skills acquired, other outcomes

  • Assess customer satisfaction

  • Method for collecting information

• Tell me about other activities for participants and your role.

• Mentoring, individual sessions, support groups, family events

• Financial counseling, case management, service referrals

• Domestic violence identification/disclosure, referral to services

• Tell me about staffing the program.

• Whether you work with a co-facilitator, and if so how you were partnered, what works well, what can be improved

• Other responsibilities you have (recruitment, marketing, outreach, intake, screening, distributing evaluation materials etc) Note: if interviewee conducts these activities please ask them the related questions on the “other staff” discussion guide

• Tell me about your goals for the healthy marriage program

• How healthy marriage is defined; how the definition takes into account the unique characteristics of the population

• What you hope the program will achieve for participants

• What are reasonable changes you should see in the participants and what changes are beyond the control/scope of the program

• Tell me what you think a “successful” healthy marriage program looks like.

• How the organization, the program and the program staff define success

• Success for various service delivery aspects (grant writing, program creation, recruitment, retention, classroom, other services, evaluation, program refinement, sustainability)

• How the program knows it is successful/monitors success

• The role (if any) the program has in facilitating participants’ understanding of U.S. cultural norms regarding marriage and marital relationships

• Anything else you’d like to tell me or think I should know

Wave 2 Questions

• Tell me what’s changed since our last conversation.

• Community changes, agency/organization changes, program changes, staffing changes, changes that specifically affect Hispanics

• Successes of and challenges to the program so far

• To what extent has the program was implemented and is operating as envisioned

• Additional adaptations made and why

• What you have learned

• Suggestions for a healthy marriage program that is just starting out, particularly one that is serving Hispanics.

• Preliminary thoughts on how the program is affecting the community at large