EPQ Presentation

Youth hostels – the way forward?An investigation into their practicality to clients

ByEmily Spencer

An investigation into their practicality to clients

For my EPQ I chose to look at youth hostels to investigate whether they are useful to today’s youth. As a result of being a client in a hostel I was aware of the negative stigma that comes with living in this type of accommodation and I wanted to see

why there was a stereotypical view. I hoped to gather enough evidence to show the positive side of youth hostels and to illustrate that some of societies outlook on hostels are incorrect. I also wanted to investigate whether this

type of accommodation sufficiently benefits clients.I focused my investigation on a hostel located on the outskirts of

Norwich city centre – Archway Housing Project.

Youth Hostels – The way Forward?

Reasons I choose this topic?

Career aspirations

Something I feel very strongly about

Although not a current issue in the news,

it’s a growing issue that not many people

are aware of

Choice of topic

For my primary research I created and collected survey’s to send to the clients of Archway Housing Project, the staff and the

neighbours to gain qualitative and quantitative data on their views and experiences of the hostel.

I thought this was the most suitable way of collecting primary research because it was the most reliable as it is first hand

opinions and experiences. This method also represents the voices of the young women living at Archway Housing Project and they gave true examples and reasons as to why they live in this type

of accommodation. My secondary research was based on stories I found on the BBC

news website. They included negative and positive views and real encounters with hostels. They were useful as I was able to show

how other people including celebrities have lived in hostel accommodation and have come out of the experience positivity,

for example becoming an actor.

Design and Methods

My results from all the survey feedback were created into charts so I could easily come to a conclusion for each question. This

worked really well as I was able to create a presentation for all three surveys with fully analysed feedback.

The overall consensus from my feedback was that the neighbours supported the hostel fully and understood the

need for it. It was suggested from the neighbours that there used to be a lot of trouble from the hostel but since a night

warden was introduced and some clients had moved on there has been an improvement. Results from the staff survey were

similar as they indicated that from time to time there is trouble but it has improved and they find the hostel to be beneficial to all clients. Client feedback indicated that all

clients liked living at Archway Housing Project and found it beneficial to them.

Analysis of research

For my artefact I wanted to create a video so I could show society what the hostel looked

like as many of the residents were not aware of the work the hostel actually did and what it looked like. For this I recorded the whole of the hostel, I then interviewed

two of the clients and one member of staff. I put this all into a video:

EPQ - Youth Hostels

Artefact

As a result of all my research I have come to the conclusion that:

Neighbours are actually supportive of the hostel

The staff believe that Archway is beneficial to clients

Archway is liked by all clients and they all find it useful to them.

The support offered by Archway is down to the individual to accept

Main findings

I think my findings to an extent answer my initial question; that the hostel’s practicality to their

clients is actually very good. However through my research I have come to

the conclusion that the support offered by the hostel is only useful if each individual are willing

to accept it. I believe that my research is reliable to an extent

also, if someone was to do the same survey in the near future they would receive the same

results but as a result of client and staff turnover being quite high results may differ.

Main findings

Throughout this entire project I believe the only thing I have learnt that I didn’t already know was the neighbours opinion on the hostel. This is because I was already aware of how the clients and staff felt about Archway. I didn’t enter this project to learn new things about hostels, I choose to do this project so I could show society a side to hostels that they don’t see

everyday and to let the clients get their opinion across. I wanted society to appreciate why these girls need a place

like Archway to live, what they are trying to do to improve their lives and how staff can support them to do this.

I believe the only other thing I learnt was that actually the girls will only help themselves and their situation if they want to, however this was through my experience of living amongst

the girls.

Experience

If I was able to go back and make improvements I would change the video so I could show a clients room as I was unable

to do this. I would also have liked to be able to go into more detail about the girls

experiences.

Improvements