Windshield Survey
Typically, a windshield survey is a systematic observation in which the trainee drives (or walks) around the community/area they serve and records their observations. This is a type of community-based research that can be quite informative and may reveal resources that the residents take for granted and no longer see. However, there are other means of exploring your community. For example by switching the Layer to Satellite on Google Maps, you can see the most current satellite view of an area. Another idea is to interview people who live and work in an area. There is a lot to be learned about a community through direct observation and interviewing community members and are in fact two of the basic skills that a Mobility Manager needs to succeed.
To facilitate development of observation and interviewing skills you will use the Windshield Survey Guide to frame your work. Once you have opened the Windshield Survey Guide, you will notice that it is divided into seven sections: Community Life, Housing, Open Spaces, Shopping, Religion, Services, and Transportation. For this Toolkit Assignment, you will be asked to record your observations and answers to the questions for each of these seven sections. In future Toolkit Assignments, you will be asked to describe how your understanding of these seven areas has changed as a result of your continued observations and interviewing.
For this assignment, you are expected to conduct a windshield survey of your community. How you make your observations or conduct your interviews is up to you. To successfully complete this assignment, you will record your observations as prompted. Your responses will be determined as acceptable (1) or unacceptable (0). All responses that are determined to be unacceptable (0) will be given feedback so that responses can be revised until they are acceptable. The purpose of this assignment is to teach effective community observation and/or interviewing skills specifically to deepen your understanding of your community’s resources and deficits.
