Focus group topic guide for non volunteers

Opening round
Name and something looking forward to
Experiences of the environment
I want to start by thinking about the last time that you did some sort of leisure
activity in the environment (outside of work). This could be the countryside, parks
in town, nature reserves, all sorts of things, and can include any type of activity
(walking, exercise, bird watching, visiting a park, cycling).
1. Can you please tell me a bit about what you did?
Prompt:
Do you do it regularly, or was it a one-off / less frequent activity?
Why do you do it? (because you want to or you feel you have to)
What did you get out of it, or what did you enjoy about the experience?
Attitudes to environmental volunteering
2. Brainstorm what environmental volunteering means to you.
3. Do you have an image of the type of person who would volunteer in the
environment / conservation?
Prompt:
Would it be people like you? Why / why not?
4. Do you associate environmental / conservation volunteering with any
particular activities?
5. What do you think people who volunteer in these sorts of activities could
be getting out of it?
6. Are there any organisations / charities / groups that you associate with this
form of volunteering?
Your interest in environmental volunteering
7. How would you describe your current level of interest in taking part in
environmental volunteering?
8. What might make you interested in environmental volunteering?
Barriers to environmental volunteering

Thinking of yourselves as people at point A, where you dont volunteer with an

environmental organisation, moving towards point B, where you do volunteer
with an environmental organisation, I want to discuss some of the things that
may stop you from volunteering.
9. What is preventing you from taking that first step towards volunteering with
an environmental organisation?
Brainstorm all possible barriers, then decide on the first one
10. What might help you to overcome that barrier?
11. Think of the next major barrier and then think about how to overcome that
barrier.
Repeat until all barriers addressed
12. Looking back, what do you feel were the really big barriers, and what were
the best suggestions for overcoming them?
End questions
13. If you had one piece of advice for an environmental organisation on how
to get people like you interested in this type of volunteering, what would it
be?
Thank you