Understanding Program Structure
The first step of the process was to gain an understanding of who the main stakeholders were in the program and their journey from start to end. Four main stakeholders were identified - shelter partners, unhoused friends, mentors, and volunteers. The figures to the right detail their role and journey.
Literature Review
Next, I researched what the current state of homelessness is in San Francisco, and studies pertaining to social support solving homelessness. Importantly, validated scales for assessing loneliness, stress, and companionship were found and incorporated in our study.
"Before the pandemic, of all Americans in the U.S., nearly 40% didn’t have enough savings to cover an emergency expense of $400 (Federal Reserve, 2019), and 552,830 experienced homelessness on any given night (OCPD, 2018). People without homes are increasingly likely to suffer from loneliness and social isolation (Bower, Conroy, & Perz, 2018)"
Survey Development
Before implementing the survey, we did a pilot survey and iterated over feedback from volunteers (not in the study) and the executive team. Feedback included being too long, the need for a surveyor script, and clearer instructions. The final survey was made on Airtable, and researchers split-up surveying equally.
Details
The entire study took place over 2 months. We were able to administer the pre-participation survey to 25 friends and 15 volunteers, and the post-participation survey to 25 friends and 15 volunteers. Scales used: UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (Russel, 1996), Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamark, & Mermelstein, 1983), Friendship Scale (Hawthorne, Griffith, & Griffith, 2000)
I was in charge of analyzing the volunteer data using regression analysis and ultimately found that there was no significant impact on volunteer loneliness, stress, or companionship. However, when analyzing the qualitative data through coding responses and identifying common themes, most volunteers stated that the greatest impact the MF program has had on them is changing their perspective on homelessness and making them feel like they are making a difference.
“It is even more important now than it was before we started self quarantine to find ways to connect with each other. Maybe this moment of everyone slowing down their lives has given us a little extra time to make the effort to be the person who refuses to let anyone else feel alone”
- MF Volunteer
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