Engaging with seldom heard audiences is essential to ensuring inclusivity is at the centre of public policy making, but there are frequently financial, practical and structural barriers to doing this work efficiently and effectively. We introduced an innovative, preliminary quantitative step to tackling these barriers.
A government agency engaged Verian to deliver research to better understand how First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) audiences engage with particular outdoor infrastructure, use of which is regulated by government.
The aim was to identify patterns, safety behaviours, and communication and engagement preferences, to inform the development of more inclusive and effective safety strategies.
Through the research, Verian explored:
While the original research brief assumed the research would adopt a qualitative approach, Verian put forward an innovative mixed-methods, multi-stage approach.
We knew that our engagement with CALD audiences as part of this research would need to be targeted and nuanced, tailored to individual audiences. However, there was no reliable data available on infrastructure usage by cultural background, and we wanted to avoid defaulting to engaging with the most populous cultural groups, or those for whom communications are typically translated.
To solve this problem, we introduced a preliminary stage of quantitative research to our research design, comprising an online survey of n=4,000, representative of the population as a whole. From this, we identified individual cultural groups with high participation rates, with a focus on those reporting low safety awareness, knowledge and behaviours.
We prioritised eight cultural groups to take through to the qualitative research, which comprised 12 focus groups. Four of these sessions were completed in-language, where English proficiency would otherwise have been a barrier to participation.
Findings from this initial survey also highlighted extremely high use of infrastructure by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Members of this community were engaged separately via additional focus groups and interviews with community leaders.
This additional step of including a quantitative component, provided a strong foundation for the qualitative phase, allowing it to be more focused, culturally informed, and responsive to the needs and experiences of the communities most likely to benefit from tailored safety communications.
Through this process, Verian demonstrated its commitment to genuine inclusion and cultural safety. We conducted in-language sessions with priority communities, recruited and facilitated by researchers from within those communities. All First Nations engagement was led by First Nations researchers to ensure culturally safe, and community-led inquiry.
Our methodology stood out by:
This approach delivered insights that would not have emerged through traditional methods, revealing distinct motivations, risk perceptions, and communication needs across specific cultural groups. Differences that would have remained hidden if CALD audiences were treated as a single group.
For our client, this meant clear, evidence-based prioritisation of which communities required tailored engagement and messaging, and audience-specific insight.
The research has informed a more targeted and evidence-based communications approach, and is guiding the development of audience-specific targets within the client’s future safety strategy.
For more information on the impact we create through innovative engagement with seldom heard voices, please visit the Verian website Engaging with Seldom Heard Voices.