Free Fall Engagement Strategies at Skateboarding Events

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

• Purpose of the video/project: The speaker discusses Free Fall—a nonprofit skate park in Quakertown—and explains how the organization’s engagement strategies at skateboarding events are understood and perceived by participants, using research tied to Free Fall’s mission/vision statements and qualitative interview data.

Background on the organization (Free Fall)

• A nonprofit organization in Quakertown
• Functions as a skate park
• Also includes:
  • Basketball courts
  • An energy center (food and drinks)
  • Computers and Xbox
• Used by kids after school and during the day

Mission/vision alignment with research

• The speaker extracts the mission statement and vision statement from Free Fall’s website to connect them to the study’s research questions and engagement strategy evaluation.
• Key themes pulled from the statements include:
  • Positive / encouraging environments
  • Being surrounded by people
  • People believing in them
• Religious element: The mission statement ends with “Jesus.” The speaker notes that religion is part of the organization, but it is not entirely up-front when considering engagement strategies.

Research questions addressed

1. How do people targeted by Free Fall’s engagement strategies at skateboarding events receive/perceive those strategies?
2. How do perceptions of Free Fall’s engagement strategies differ by:
   • Gender
   • Age
   • Religious affiliation

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Methodology and process (detailed)

• Research approach:

  • Qualitative research
  • In-depth interviews using a structured interview guide

• Interview guide inspiration/source: Based on an academic article: “Consumer insights about spirituality and advertising.” Questions were adapted for this study.

• Example adapted question themes:

  • Similar structure to:
    • “Do you feel this commercial could have any influence on your personal life?”
    • “How much do you identify with the message portrayed?”
  • These were modified to ask about perceptions/identification with Free Fall’s event engagement/messages.

• Data collection strategy:

  • Convenience sampling (speaker knew participants; they worked there, volunteered, etc.)
  • Four structured interviews
    • Two male to female participants (as described)
    • Ages ranging roughly from 20 to 40+
  • Interview guide structure: sections addressing:
    • Engagement strategies
    • Content
    • Events
    • Age, gender, and religion
  • Interview length varied:
    • Some participants spoke for up to ~45 minutes
    • Others could not/would not speak that long

• Criteria/factors included in the study:

  • Community aspects
  • Gender inclusion
  • Thoughts on religion
  • Age relations

• Data analysis:

  • Used MAXQDA (software mentioned for class use)
  • Inductive coding derived from the interviews

  • Main coding categories:

    • Belonging
      • Subcodes: keeping in touch, events (belonging and events were later emphasized in correlation)

  • Coding was done throughout documents until data saturation was reached

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Findings (main points tied to the research questions)

Research Question 1: Perception of Free Fall engagement strategies

• Belonging and events were strongly connected in coding/relational analysis.
• Participants described events as:
  • Well planned
  • Made for everyone
• Observed diversity of attendees mentioned by the speaker:
  • Families
  • Teenagers
  • Younger middle-age adults
  • People connected through friends who also skate
• Coding frequency insight:
  • Belonging was coded the most
  • Keeping in touch was coded the least
  • The speaker found the lower “keeping in touch” coding slightly surprising, because they expected it to align more closely with “belonging” as an engagement mechanism.

Research Question 2: Differences by gender, age, religious affiliation

• Religious affiliation (non-religious status) was prominent in perceptions:
  • A non-religious respondent (example: a 20-year-old man) said:
    • It’s “nice” that religion isn’t made as prominent
    • People may feel intimidated by outwardly strong religious presentations

• However, the speaker adds:

  • When respondents attended events, they seemed to feel more relaxed
  • This persuaded (or shifted) the speaker’s opinion

• Age differences seemed minimal:

  • Example: a 40+ female participant said:
    • During live shows, parents enjoy music while their child does an extracurricular activity
  • Implied conclusion: there is something for everyone

• Content and gender inclusion were emphasized:

  • Content seemed important across responses
  • On gender inclusion, the speaker reports:
    • Free Fall “does a great job” appealing to any gender
    • Advertising is catchy, using multiple colors
  • Example of personal engagement:
    • Even though the speaker is male, they still engage with the messaging/advertising

• Overall tone of findings (speaker’s summary): The findings focus heavily on positive aspects of the engagement strategies and how well they work together.

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Speakers or sources featured (as stated)

Speakers in the video

• The main speaker (the researcher/presenter)
• Interview participants (unnamed), including examples of:
  • A 20-year-old man (quote about religion not being prominent)
  • A 40+ female (quote about live shows/music and child activities)
• Other participants were referenced generally; no additional names were provided.

Sources referenced

• Academic article: “Consumer insights about spirituality and advertising” (used to inspire the interview guide)
• Free Fall website (used to pull mission statement and vision statement)
• Software/tool: MAXQDA (used for coding)