029 Chapter 3 Methodology Fieldwork for the pre-workshop survey took place over a two-week period during the second half of October 2022. The workshops were delivered throughout November and early December 2022, with data collection for the post-workshop survey occurring simultaneously. The final survey was conducted during the final week of February and first week of March 2023. The post-workshop focus group discussions were conducted in February 2023, before data collection commenced for the follow-up survey. 3.2 Recruitment Various networks and modes of contact were used to recruit aged care and community workers, such as posting announcements in online newsletters and emailing local governments and key stakeholder groups in the ageing sector for distribution of information among their members and networks. The Commission also carried out web-based searches to identify community programs for older adults and contacted identified organisations via email to invite them to take part in the research. Additionally, those who expressed an interest in participating were encouraged to share information about the research with their contacts they deemed relevant. All potential participants were screened for eligibility to include only those who were currently involved in delivering aged care or community programs to older adults through work or volunteer activity. All eligible participants were provided with a consent form regarding the research, including the type of information to be collected and how it would be used, and indicating their right to withdraw from participation at any point. Participants acknowledged their understanding and provided informed consent by returning a signed form. Incentives in the form of gift cards were offered to those who participated in post-workshop discussions and respondents of the post-workshop and follow-up surveys.70 No incentives were offered for the pre-workshop survey or the age awareness workshop. 3.3 Participants A total of 329 people participated in the research by completing at least one survey. There were dropoffs in the number of participants across the study, and a number of participants joined after the preworkshop survey. The number of participants for each stage is provided below.