The document summarizes an investigation into the practicality and benefits of youth hostels for clients. Primary research in the form of surveys was conducted with clients, staff, and neighbors of Archway Housing Project hostel. The research found that the neighbors were supportive of the hostel, the staff believed it benefited clients, and clients liked living there and found it useful. However, the support is only beneficial if individuals are willing to accept it. In conclusion, the hostel provides practical support for clients, though individuals must be willing to help themselves.

1. Youth hostels – the way forward?
An investigation into their practicality to clients
By
Emily Spencer

2. An investigation into their practicality to clients
For my EPQ I chose to look at youth hostels to investigate
whether they are useful to today’s youth. As a result of being a
client in a hostel I was aware of the negative stigma that
comes with living in this type of accommodation and I wanted
to see why there was a stereotypical view.
I hoped to gather enough evidence to show the positive side of
youth hostels and to illustrate that some of societies outlook
on hostels are incorrect. I also wanted to investigate whether
this type of accommodation sufficiently benefits clients.
I focused my investigation on a hostel located on the outskirts
of Norwich city centre – Archway Housing Project.

3. Reasons I choose this topic?
 Career aspirations
 Something I feel very strongly about
 Although not a current issue in the news, it’s
a growing issue that not many people are
aware of

4. For my primary research I created and collected survey’s to
send to the clients of Archway Housing Project, the staff and
the neighbours to gain qualitative and quantitative data on
their views and experiences of the hostel.
I thought this was the most suitable way of collecting
primary research because it was the most reliable as it is
first hand opinions and experiences. This method also
represents the voices of the young women living at Archway
Housing Project and they gave true examples and reasons as
to why they live in this type of accommodation.
My secondary research was based on stories I found on the
BBC news website. They included negative and positive views
and real encounters with hostels. They were useful as I was
able to show how other people including celebrities have
lived in hostel accommodation and have come out of the
experience positivity, for example becoming an actor.

5. My results from all the survey feedback were created into
charts so I could easily come to a conclusion for each
question. This worked really well as I was able to create a
presentation for all three surveys with fully analysed
feedback.
The overall consensus from my feedback was that the
neighbours supported the hostel fully and understood the
need for it. It was suggested from the neighbours that
there used to be a lot of trouble from the hostel but since
a night warden was introduced and some clients had
moved on there has been an improvement. Results from
the staff survey were similar as they indicated that from
time to time there is trouble but it has improved and they
find the hostel to be beneficial to all clients. Client
feedback indicated that all clients liked living at Archway
Housing Project and found it beneficial to them.

6. For my artefact I wanted to create a video so I
could show society what the hostel looked
like as many of the residents were not aware
of the work the hostel actually did and what it
looked like. For this I recorded the whole of
the hostel, I then interviewed two of the
clients and one member of staff.
I put this all into a video:
EPQ - Youth Hostels

7. As a result of all my research I have come to
the conclusion that:
 Neighbours are actually supportive of the
hostel
 The staff believe that Archway is beneficial to
clients
 Archway is liked by all clients and they all find
it useful to them.
 The support offered by Archway is down to
the individual to accept

8.  I think my findings to an extent answer my initial
question; that the hostel’s practicality to their
clients is actually very good.
 However through my research I have come to the
conclusion that the support offered by the hostel
is only useful if each individual are willing to
accept it.
 I believe that my research is reliable to an extent
also, if someone was to do the same survey in
the near future they would receive the same
results but as a result of client and staff turnover
being quite high results may differ.

9. Throughout this entire project I believe the only thing I
have learnt that I didn’t already know was the neighbours
opinion on the hostel. This is because I was already aware
of how the clients and staff felt about Archway. I didn’t
enter this project to learn new things about hostels, I
choose to do this project so I could show society a side to
hostels that they don’t see everyday and to let the clients
get their opinion across.
I wanted society to appreciate why these girls need a place
like Archway to live, what they are trying to do to improve
their lives and how staff can support them to do this.
I believe the only other thing I learnt was that actually the
girls will only help themselves and their situation if they
want to, however this was through my experience of living
amongst the girls.

10. If I was able to go back and make
improvements I would change the video so I
could show a clients room as I was unable to
do this. I would also have liked to be able to
go into more detail about the girls
experiences.