Survey Your Community

Take the pulse of those in your community. Find out who shares similar concerns.

Background
Surveys are used by many different groups—by governments, news media, manufacturing companies and marketers—to find out what different communities know, feel, or want. By looking at the results for similar groups within a community (similar ages, genders, geography, social and economic factors, etc.), you can get detailed insights into the interests and concerns of that aspect of the community.

Take Action
Ask the people in your school, neighbourhood, or town about child soldiers. Are they aware of the issue?
At what age do they think people should be allowed to join the military in your country? What about in other countries? What do they think your country can do to limit trading practices that support armed groups? How can your country do more to stop the trade in small arms and light weapons?

Note: You may find that many students and adults will have little information on child soldiers—you should be prepared to answer their questions.

Review the results of your survey:

• Did adults and students give different or similar answers?
• Did students ages 15-18 feel differently from those far younger or older? If so, in what way did their responses differ? What might be a reason for their different repsponse?
• Did men and women answer similarly or differently from each other?
• What about boys and girls?

What other ways can you compare their responses? How can you share the information the survey gave you?

STEP SEVEN: Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Next