First Person Who Genuinely Helped

Life-Path Interview 02

Purpose: Understand what effective human support actually looks like from the perspective of the person receiving it.

Approximate ages are fine. The participant may skip any question.

Participant code: ____________________ Date: ____________________

Interviewer: ____________________

□ The participant agrees to have these responses recorded and stored privately for Union support planning. Questions may be skipped. The participant can ask the administrator to review or correct the record, or discuss withdrawal.

1. Remembering the Person

Can you remember someone who genuinely helped you at a difficult point in your life?

They could have been family, a friend, teacher, employer, outreach worker, police officer, corrections worker, health professional, elder, stranger, or someone with similar lived experience.

You do not have to give their name.

2. What Was Happening?

What was going on in your life when they appeared?

What did you need at the time?

Did you know what you needed?

3. What They Actually Did

What did this person do, rather than simply say?

• Listened or believed me

• Gave practical help, food, work, shelter, information, or an introduction

• Defended me or stood beside me

• Held me accountable

• Kept showing up

• Trusted me

• Other

4. Why You Accepted Their Help

Why did you trust them?

What made their help different from help you rejected?

Did they treat you differently from professionals or institutions?

5. Boundaries and Accountability

Did this person ever tell you something you did not want to hear, but needed to hear?

Why were you willing to listen?

Did they expect anything from you? Was that expectation helpful?

6. The Effect

What happened because this person helped?

Did anything change in housing, work, relationships, confidence, drug use, legal involvement, education, or sense of direction?

How long did their influence last?

7. Passing It Forward

Have you ever helped someone else in a similar way?

What did you learn from the person who helped you that you now use with others?

8. Looking Back

What made this person effective?

What could an organization learn from them?

9. Participant's Own Interpretation

Finish: "I trusted them because..."

Finish: "The thing they did that mattered most was..."

Interviewer Notes

Type of relationship: ____________________________________________

What established trust: ____________________________________________

Practical action taken: ____________________________________________

Accountability provided: ____________________________________________

Long-term effect: ____________________________________________

Potential mentorship principles: ____________________________________________