TABLE 2—

Rapid Ethnographic Assessment for Men Who Have Sex With Men and Other Sexual Minorities

Action Step	Objective
Define the target or at-risk populations	Develop preliminary working definitions of the population(s) of interest
Search for information and gaps in knowledge about the target population	Conduct a thorough search of the literature and other documentary evidence to identify gaps in knowledge about the target population
Survey internal staff members who have knowledge of the target population	Identify internal staff members and others with knowledge of the target population and collect data through semistructured interviews or surveys
Survey external systems staff and volunteers at other agencies with knowledge of the target population	Move beyond immediate staff and contacts to gather additional information from other formal agencies or professionals familiar with the target population
Survey “interactors”	Indentify individuals who have informal contact with and knowledge of the target population, but who are not themselves part of the target population
Reduce and integrate the information from the internal and external interviews	Closely examine and integrate the data generated, providing the foundation for subsequent steps
Define and prioritize sectors and subgroupings of the target population	Revise initial taxonomies in light of data that have emerged; prioritize sectors and subgroupings for study based upon issues such as accessibility, levels of risk, and relative size of the population
Obtain access through “gatekeepers” and other means to conduct observations	Identify individuals who can control or promote access to the target population for participant or nonparticipant observation
Interview key participants or members of the target population	In-depth semistructured or structured interviews to gather “insider” views of the sectors and subgroupings of interest
Interpret data from all the previous steps	Formally reduce, analyze, and interpret data
Conduct focus groups with members of the target population	Formally use focus groups to provide critiques of individual interview data and to conduct “member checking” of findings, interpretations, and conclusions

Source. Adapted from Higgins et al.72