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Community Wellbeing· Medium risk

Story interview guide for a participant

When to use: before interviewing a participant, volunteer or staff member for a story. How to use: give AI what you're hoping to learn and any sensitivities — get open, non-leading questions.

When to use this prompt

Reach for this prompt when you need to when to use: before interviewing a participant, volunteer or staff member for a story. How to use: give AI what you're hoping to learn and any sensitivities — get open, non-leading questions. It's designed for Comms Lead, Programme Manager. Typically used within Marketing work.

Draft with AI, then have a colleague verify facts and tone before use.

How to use it

  1. 1

    Gather your inputs

    Have your local context, audience and goal to hand.
  2. 2

    Fill in the template

    Copy the template below and replace every bracketed placeholder with real, local context. Keep names and safeguarding details out.
  3. 3

    Run it in your AI tool

    Paste into your preferred AI assistant. Ask a follow-up if the output misses your association's tone or context.
  4. 4

    Review with the checklist

    Work through the human-review checklist below before you send, publish or act on the output.

Prefer a guided flow? Adapt with the guided builder — it fills placeholders from your association profile.

Prompt template

Draft an interview guide for a story about {THEME}. Interviewee: {ROLE_OR_RELATIONSHIP}. Sensitivities: {SENSITIVITIES}. 8 open questions moving from safe to reflective. No leading questions. Include a consent check at the start, an offer to skip or pause, and a note that they can withdraw their story at any point before publication.

Replace bracketed placeholders with real context. Never paste identifying details about children, health or safeguarding cases.

Worked example

Theme: recovery from homelessness\nSensitivities: past mental health, family estrangement

What good output looks like

A trauma-aware interview guide with consent and pause built in.

Why this prompt works

Ethical story-gathering, especially with young people or people who've experienced harm.

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    Never enter identifying information about children, health or safeguarding cases into any AI tool. AI drafts, humans decide.

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