An hour and a half per conversation. Some people ask us – isn’t that a lot?
Honestly, it’s barely enough. When someone starts talking about their life, their experiences with a new culture, the moments when they felt welcome or completely lost – you don’t want to cut that short.
Our youth workers run these interviews. They’ve been trained, they have a framework to follow, but there’s plenty of room for the conversation to go wherever it needs to go. It’s structured but not stiff.
We record everything, take notes afterwards, look for patterns. But what we’re really doing is paying attention. Giving people space to tell their story on their own terms.
And something interesting happens when you do that – people share more than they planned to. That’s usually where the best insights come from.