Scene 9: Discouraging Moment

05 November 2013

Backstory:

We want our team of co-researchers to be involved with our project from start to finish.  However, the group of co-researchers that we started our project with seemed more hesitant than we had expected, the reason remaining unknown. We hope that by spending more time with them, we can develop the type of relationship that our team has formed in the past seven week of project preparation.

Cast of Characters

MGV Park Team: Lucine, Tyler, Katherine, Zack

Co-researchers: Shannon, Zoe, Zelreese, Shaniece, Linton

Community Members: Ronell

Setting: Perseverance Park

Scene:

On Tuesday, we arrived at the park a little before 1 pm. We sat on the benches and observed two groups of people who were there, a young child surrounded by adults and a group of younger kids on their bikes. Unfortunately, neither group of people contained our co-researchers. By 1:30 pm, they still had not arrived. We thought that we had been clear earlier in the week of what was expected of each other in terms of commitment, but there still seemed to be some miscommunication. Ronell and Gavin arrived at the park around 1:45, asking where our co-researchers were. We told them that they had not shown up and decided to move along with the plans for the day as to not waste any more time. Ronell looked into their absence as we started to walk to the crèche to talk with some teachers.

Tuesday night Ronell called our team with some news.  The group of co-researchers that we were working with had received jobs elsewhere and would no longer be able to work with us. Although we were disappointed that we had set time during the past week to get to know these co-researchers, we knew that we needed to continue on with the project. However, the telephone conversation ended with some encouraging news. Ronell said that there were other youth in the community that had expressed interest in participating in the park development. We eagerly planed to meet them on Thursday.

Reflection:

It was very disappointing that we no longer had the chance to work with the first group of co-researchers. We were eager to become close with our co-research team and work together over the next several weeks.  It felt as though they had numerous opportunities to show enthusiasm but something was keeping them back. We understand that our project may not be the top priority on how they spend their time, as it is currently ours. We understand that they have families to provide for and other aspects of their lives that we are most certainly unaware of. We are in full support of them taking the jobs that they found elsewhere, if that is what’s best for them and their families. Hopefully, we can reach out to them at a later stage of the project because their input is valued as members of Maitland Garden Village. Hopefully the new group of youth will be eager to jump into the project right away without wasting any time.