I have included two “problem examples” from the nonprofit coffee shop where I work about 20-30 hours each week. I have also included one problem from the ministry context I am in.

The first problem that comes to mind in my work at a nonprofit coffee shop is the lack of seating. Almost every day there are times when the coffee shop is packed and people have to take their drinks to go because there is nowhere to sit. Sometimes meetings from the charity that is connected to the coffee shop are happening during our busiest times, making seating very limited. I believe it would be possible to find a solution to this through action research.

The second problem that comes to mind is the problem we have with getting traffic on Saturdays. Our coffee shop location is right in the middle of five large office buildings. This means we get many business people throughout the week as many of them work in the buildings around us and will do meetings or coffee breaks here. However, on Saturdays our traffic is less than half of what it might be on a weekday because most people working in the office buildings around us are off for the weekend. It is the one day a week where we get very little profit and are sometimes simply covering our costs. Action research could help develop a plan that could increase our traffic on Saturday.

The third problem that comes to mind relates to my church ministry work with the young adults group that I lead. Every month we do a “Serve Night” as opposed to our regular gatherings. This has typically looked like going downtown to serve hot chocolate and treats to people facing homelessness. However, we would like to expand what we do to serve our community and city. The problem is that our group is too big for some of the organizations we have tried to partner with. They often ask for groups around 8-10 people and we have a group that is around 30 people each night. We would like to partner with a group or organization that knows what the city and community need, rather than us try to figure it out on our own. Action research could help us discover how our larger group can partner with an organization once a month, or more.