Checking In Survey Findings

By Pushpa Iyer

When we launched Compassionate Courage in the summer of 2021, we were a year into the pandemic. There was an economic crisis; most people were concerned about their employment and their financial future. Political rhetoric exacerbated tensions around immigration, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, and more. Amidst all this, there was violence around us and a greater awareness that the root of the problem was in unjust structures, but no one knew how to change the system. Instead, everyone stayed in their spaces trying to make themselves as comfortable as they could (literally speaking too since COVID isolated all of us in our nooks) and we lost the ability to reach out and connect with the ‘other.’ The lesser the connections, the wider the gaps with anyone across the divide whether it was politics, race, religion, gender, nationality, or class, and more people became the ‘other’ or even the ‘enemy’. 

We, at Compassionate Courage, were curious to know if others were seeking this connection or if there were other things that they needed during these challenging times. So, we developed our survey to ask people to primary questions:

(a)   What is the one question you wish people would have asked you as a way of acknowledging your experiences during this difficult year?
(b)  What is the one comment/ question/ suggestion you wish people would not make to you?

We received 161 responses to our survey. 

Knowing our respondents

Most of our respondents (108) were located in the United States. Please see our chart below to know our respondent’s location:

Most of the respondents (43.8%) who took the survey were born between 1977-1995. For a more detailed breakdown of ages, see below:

Our respondents were overwhelmingly female (62.73%). For a detailed gender breakdown, see below:

We wanted to know the level of education of our respondents and how that corresponded with their employment status and here is what we found:

Most of our respondents have had higher education. 52.17% of our respondents have a Masters degree, while 21.12% have a doctorate. The three respondents who degrees were not listed have an advanced law degree (J.D.). 

Not surprisingly, the employment status of our respondents corresponded with the levels of education. 59.63% had full time paid employment and 10.56% of our respondents were unemployed. Below is a more detailed breakdown. 

Given that most of our respondents were from the United States, more than half our respondents identified themselves as White ( 54.66%). For a detailed breakdown see below.

The 31.68% of respondents who live outside of the U.S. identified themselves by their ethinic, linguistic or caste groups. 

How affected were our respondents?

Given the above demographic breakdown, we were not surprised that 48.49% of the respondents said they were extremely affected by the pandemic and 51.72% said they were a little more than ‘somewhat affected’ by the pandemic. And, we think it says a lot that not one person said they were unaffected by the pandemic. 

In comparison to the pandemic, the results of how much people were affected by the global reckoning on race was revealing. 5.5% said they were personally not affected at all by the racial tensions we saw around the world but especially in the United States. Those who had been “somewhat affected” were over 57.14% while only 13% said they had been “extremely affected” by the global reckoning on race. Taking into consideration that over 67% of our respondents live in the United States, the numbers are a bit surprising. However, when you consider race, 81.48% of those residing in the United States had identified themselves as White, giving us some idea for why such a large number of individuals were not as affected by racial tensions.

Given the level of education and employment status of our respondents, it was not surprising to learn that 25.46% of them were not affected at all economically during this period. 15.5% of our respondents said they were extremely affected economically. 

For details see the graph and breakdown listed below:

What did people wish others had asked them?

As we suspected, most people had versions of ‘How are you doing’ as the one question they wished people had asked them during these difficult times. The variations included questions like:

• How are you coping?

• How did COVID impact student life this year?

• How did you manage to survive?

• How has the pandemic affected you emotionally?

• Is your family back home in India safe?

• Are you really okay?

• How is your health?

• How have you lived through the experience of racial reckoning?

• What have you lost?

• How are you feeling?

• Do you feel isolated?

• How is your mental health?

• How is it living abroad during these times?

Another set of questions that repeatedly appeared were variations of “What can I do for you?” Some examples are listed below.

• What do you need?

• Do you need help?

• How are you doing financially?

• How can I bring a smile to your face?

• Can we meet?

• How can I support you?

• Am I doing enough to support you right now?

One question that got our attention was “Do you want to talk about it? (Asking, not assuming I want to talk about it)”  This question helps us exercise caution as we run out to check on people but it still encourages us to reach out by reflecting on the way we approach people while checking in with them.

What did people not want others to comment on?

Responses to this question were very varied. Some examples to show the range of responses are listed below.

• Nothing. People can ask or say anything they want to me

• A person saying “my community suffered the most”

• You should exercise more

• Everyone is going through something. You are not the only one

• Vaccines aren’t so effective against the variants

• Telling me to hang in there

• Don’t be so afraid of people who don’t wear face masks

• Everything will be okay

• This too shall pass

• It is not as bad as it appears

• Well, it could be worse

• Get vaccinated

• Be grateful you have a job

• Don’t worry; you will be fine

• Are you still not socializing?

• It is time to learn about yourself

The response in this section showed us that a question or comment that some might appreciate might not be appreciated by others. However, it is also clear that people want others to acknowledge their pain and suffering and not generalize that if everyone is suffering that one should not complain at all. Each person’s pain is their own and must be acknowledged. 

Our survey was open from June 16 to October 9, 2021. These findings are very interesting to us and we are working on a few analytical pieces to share what we have learnt from both the experience of running a survey and from our respondents. In the meantime, the survey findings have encouraged us to launch a Checking In campaign. You can read more about it here and we hope you will join us in our campaign. Let’s commit to being there for those around us.