1 How to Market Job Corps on a Shoestring Budget

HOW TO MARKET JOB CORPS ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET

Marketing does not have to be expensive. This document outlines marketing techniques that your center or Outreach and Admissions staff may use to increase recruitment and outreach efforts with little or no financial commitment. For those of you who have been with Job Corps for years, the activities below may be ones you already practice. However, we hope that the ideas are helpful for newcomers and veterans alike.

This guide offers tips to increase enrollment by: a) Using your current students; b) Leveraging media; c) Getting the community involved; d) Using printed Job Corps materials; e) Taking advantage of Job Corps’ National Facebook Page.

Step-by-step instructions for more intricate tasks are attached in the appendices.

Marketing your center is not the sole responsibility of the Business Community Liaison, the Center Director, or the Outreach and Admissions staff. As this guide demonstrates, everyone from the students sitting in your classrooms to church youth groups can play a part in promoting your center’s activities. We hope this guide will help improve existing outreach efforts and inspire new efforts.

If you need assistance or more information regarding any of these suggestions, please contact your McNeely Pigott & Fox representative by e-mail or at (615) 259-4000. If you are not sure whom to contact at MP&F, have a look at this page on the Job Corps Materials Marketplace: www.mpf.com/jcmaterials/regional-information.

#1 Start With Your Students

Many people say that the best spokesperson for Job Corps is someone who has actually participated in the program. Following are suggestions on how to use students as part of your outreach strategy.

Launch a Recruitment Tour A recruitment tour in your community engages your current Job Corps students as well as local media, community organizations, and, most important, potential students. Arrange for a group of successful students and graduates to visit local community centers, shelters, shopping malls, public housing developments, and community organizations, where they can share their stories with potential students. Schedule meetings with community newspaper editors and/or reporters to inform them about the opportunities Job Corps provides. This outreach technique could also be tailored to specific audiences such as Latinos, females, and other groups. See Appendix A for step-by-step instructions for organizing and executing a recruitment tour.

1 Organize a Letter-Writing Campaign Encourage your students to write letters to the editor of your local newspaper highlighting the benefits of Job Corps’ training programs and services. This letter could be a message thanking the community for supporting the center, a community service project follow-up letter, or even an invitation for the public to visit the campus. Ask your out-of-area students to write letters to their hometown newspapers as well.

Train Student Presenters Teach public speaking techniques to a few students on center and prepare them to talk about Job Corps to an external audience. Bring one or more students with you to every outreach presentation. Allow a student to create a PowerPoint slideshow or to deliver a portion of the presentation.

Initiate a “Refer a Friend” Program Ask your students to create a list of their friends and family members whom they think might be interested in Job Corps. Encourage students to e-mail the people on their list about Job Corps. If students would prefer to mail a letter and recruitment brochure, you can provide postage and envelopes. Offer a reward or create other incentives for those who refer new students.

#2 Leverage Local Media

Local newspapers, television, and radio stations are powerful resources for getting information about Job Corps to the general public. This section provides tips about working with media outlets to get positive coverage of your center. Be sure to include your center director and regional OPA representative in your media plans. The most successful media campaigns are coordinated efforts that meet existing media outreach policies.

Establish Ongoing Relationships With Reporters Most media outlets receive dozens, if not hundreds, of story ideas every week. By establishing ongoing relationships with members of the local media, you put a name and a face to your materials and lift them from the anonymity of all the other news releases competing for attention and space. Building a rapport with your local media contacts increases the likelihood of getting coverage for your center’s events and activities. See Appendix B for tips on establishing these relationships. Also, MP&F hosts a Webinar on media relations. Check the Job Corps Community Web site to view the Webinar schedule.

Capitalize on How Job Corps Fits Current Trends in the News Have you read recent stories in your local newspaper about the growing Latino population in your area or about a national shortage of nursing personnel? Take note of the reporter who wrote this story and contact him or her about your center’s programs and services. Call an education or business reporter and present your ESL and job training programs as story ideas about accommodating Latino students. Send a health reporter a news release about the number of students who recently enrolled in your nursing program.

Monitor the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest job/industry analyses (published quarterly online at www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/ooqhome.htm). Each quarter, pinpoint which growing industries (or related industries) are taught at your center. Inform your local media contacts about the training offered at your center that matches the growing job trends. Continually monitoring the news will help you recognize other story opportunities similar to the examples listed here.

Be Proactive Brainstorm ways to approach your local media to generate interest in your center. Some ideas might include: offering Job Corps instructors as experts that can answer reporters’ questions or provide professional quotes regarding a particular industry, inviting media representatives to open houses and other special events on center, or pitching human interest stories about how a student has turned his or her life around. One idea is to draft a recruitment drive news release to send to local media announcing open slots at your center. See Appendix C for a recruitment drive news release template. See Appendix B for tips on promoting an event or pitching a news item to the media.

Be Prepared Preparation is key when dealing with the media. When you’re anticipating having contact with the media, make a list of questions you’d love a reporter to ask (as well as those you hope they don’t ask) and have the answers in your back pocket. For every interview, set an agenda of three or four points you want to make regardless of the questions the reporter asks. Consider an encounter with a reporter as an opportunity to tell Job Corps’ story. Be enthusiastic! And, if a reporter ever asks you a question that you do not feel comfortable answering, say, “I can’t answer that. But, let me refer you to someone who can.”

#3 Get Your Community Involved

Engaging community leaders and organizations is a great way to reach out to potential Job Corps students and their influencers. This section offers suggestions about how members of your community can contribute to your recruitment efforts.

Establish Community Partnerships Contact organizations in your area that may be interested in forming a recruitment partnership with your center. Consider organizations that your target recruitment pool may frequent. Possible organizations to contact for recruitment partnerships include: American Job Centers, church youth groups, foster care agencies, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs/YWCAs, public housing developments, and shelters. Locate and research the government-sponsored American Job Centers in your state by visiting www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/onestop/onestopmap.cfm. For step-by-step instructions on initiating and fostering a recruitment partnership with a local organization, refer to Appendix D.

Become a Community Resource

3 Pitch center staff as experts who can conduct various seminars at local high schools, Rotary clubs, and other civic or business organizations. These seminars should be specific to each audience and can cover subjects that are taught daily on center, such as employability skills, how to write a resume, basic car repair, and health care tips. Make these experts available to the media for stories they may be preparing or topics related to certain industries.

Reach Out to Community Leaders Write letters to local faith leaders and guidance counselors to inform them of the opportunities available at Job Corps. Create a “Job Corps 101” information kit that includes your center-specific recruitment materials and a brief overview of your center’s mission and objectives. Host luncheons on center and invite members of prominent community organizations where you can share the Job Corps 101 PowerPoint presentation found on the Materials Marketplace.

Build an E-Mail Friends List Create a “Friends of Job Corps” e-mail database and send out periodic e-mails with center updates, fun facts, holiday greetings, and general program information. Use Internet research and your current databases to build a master e-mail list of business leaders, local elected officials, high school guidance counselors and principals, current Job Corps partners, and parents of students. Use a mail merge (a function of Microsoft Word) to send mass e-mails to this list of contacts. Refer to the Microsoft Word help menu for instructions on using a mail merge to distribute e-mail messages.

Call on Your Employers Ask the employer of a successful Job Corps graduate to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Try establishing relationships with local and statewide organizations for careers that are taught at Job Corps. For instance, ask the state builders association to do an article in their newsletter telling members where to find trained employees.

Organize Community Service Projects Conduct service projects to increase your students’ visibility in the community. Require students to wear their Job Corps uniforms or create special T-shirts for the occasion. Take pictures at the event, tally the number of hours spent, and send a news release with photos to local print media. Consider collaborating with well-known community service organizations like Habitat for Humanity. Or partner with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive on center and let your Health Occupations students volunteer.

Open Your Center’s Doors to the Community Inviting the public to your center is another way to heighten Job Corps’ profile in the community. Think of ways to advertise your center to people of all ages and interests. Host a Business After Hours reception for your local chamber of commerce, or offer your center’s gym or fields free of charge to local youth sports leagues and camps (see Appendix D). Another idea is to invite the public to your center for periodic roundtable discussions about community issues. One example topic could be reducing neighborhood crime. Security students could facilitate the event, along with guest speakers or local

4 celebrities (like a radio DJ or well-known minister). Discussion topics could vary to target specific student groups, like a female night, sports night, or arts night.

#4 Use Job Corps Marketing Materials

Distribute Materials in Popular Places Distribute posters and fliers to community locations and businesses frequented by youth. Always leave your business card or a specific person’s name whom an interested individual can contact. Some possible locations to distribute materials include: American Job Centers, beauty salons or barber shops, shopping malls, hospital or doctors’ waiting rooms, local housing authority developments, and public transportation depots.

Send Materials to New Contacts Each time you establish new contacts—whether they’re potential students you met on the recruitment tour or a new recruitment partner at the YMCA—provide these contacts with a small quantity of fliers and posters. Ask them to post these materials in their facilities or to share the materials with anyone who might be eligible for and interested in Job Corps.

Make Use of Targeted Marketing Pieces Distribute customized marketing materials in places appropriate to each audience. Deliver Spanish recruitment materials to local Hispanic chambers of commerce, Hispanic media outlets, and community centers. Leave female-specific recruitment materials at day care centers, women’s shelters, or public health clinics.

#5 Take Advantage of Job Corps’ National Facebook Page

MP&F helps the National Office collect information to share on Job Corps’ national Facebook page: www.facebook.com/doljobcorps. We post new information, photos, and links every day, and we are always looking for new information to share.

The more information you submit to [email protected], the more often your center or region will be featured on the page. If you have questions about what kind of information we are looking for, just visit the page and have a look at what we’ve been posting. If you do not have access to the page, your MP&F contact can give you all the information you need.

All of the tips listed above will make great Facebook posts. So, when you take those photos to share with the community and the media, share them with us too. Be sure to visit the Facebook page regularly if you are able. When you see a post you think your students or community contacts would be interested in, let them know about it.

5 Appendix A

Launching a Recruitment Tour

Step 1: Select five or six articulate students (and perhaps graduates) who have success stories or have demonstrated leadership on center. If possible, select a diverse group in respect to gender, race, and age (unless your tour is for a specific target audience like females or Latinos). Also select one or two staff members who will be able to attend recruitment functions with the student representatives.

Step 2: About 2 months before the targeted tour date, brainstorm ideal places in your area to make presentations about Job Corps to potential students and to potential partners. (Try conducting informal focus groups with current students to determine the best places.)

Step 3: Draft talking points for your student representatives, and conduct mock interviews to prepare them for questions they may encounter from media, potential students, teachers, and counselors. Be careful not to script your students too much. Encourage them to be specific about what they like about Job Corps. For example, “I like Job Corps because it is diverse” is kind of a boring answer. “I never knew I could build a computer” or “I met my best friend at Job Corps” is not.

Step 4: Select a location like a local Wal-Mart or grocery store to set up an information booth. Create a display of Job Corps materials at the booth along, with registration forms where potential students can sign up for more information. MP&F has display materials available. Call or e-mail your MP&F contact for more information.

Step 5: Allow students to answer questions and distribute center brochures, fliers, and posters to those who visit your booth. Leave your business card and extra materials behind at each stop of the tour.

Step 6: Follow up with the contacts you made. Ask if you can place them in your e-mail database and send them periodic updates about your center.

For a more aggressive tour, try some of the following ideas: • Contact guidance counselors at local high schools and ask if they have job fairs or other “life after high school” events that you could participate in. MP&F can provide you with a list of school counselors in your area who have received information about the Job Corps program. Call or e-mail your MP&F contact for more information.

• Contact other potential hosts like public housing developments, shelters, and churches where Job Corps participants can share their stories. Try setting up an information booth at a shopping mall with a radio remote/sponsorship.

• Prepare presentations for and schedule visits to the chamber of commerce, Rotary, and other civic organizations.

6 • Call the local daily newspaper and ask if its education, features, or business editor can meet with your student representatives during the tour. Try to schedule guest appearances on TV and radio programs.

• Promote the tour in advance by submitting a brief description of your event (who, what, when, where, why) to the calendar of events editors of local newspapers. Post fliers at the host sites, or send a news release to local media outlets.

• If media representatives are not able to cover your events, take pictures at each stop of the tour and submit the photos to local newspapers with a brief summary about the presentations.

7 Appendix B

Media Relations

Building a Rapport With the Local Media

Step 1: Research the websites of all newspaper(s), magazine(s), radio and television stations, and any Web-based media in your area to learn more about the types of stories they cover and the particular areas that each reporter or editor focuses on. Your MP&F contact can help you develop media lists. Just call or e-mail for help.

Step 2: Select one or two staff members who will be your center’s main contact for the media. Offer one additional staff member as a consistent backup. Ask your center staff to filter all media concerns through the selected staff member(s). This consistency will allow reporters and editors to develop a familiarity with one person.

Step 3: Ask your center’s media representative to call and introduce himself to an education, business, or features editor. This person should offer to be a resource, not only for information about your center, but also for information about his or her industry or area of expertise. Consider submitting a source list to the media with specific staff members listed as experts in particular industries.

Step 4: Job Corps staff and students can set up meetings with editors or reporters to inform them about the program. Invite a reporter to lunch on center with a few students and staff members.

Step 5: When a reporter writes a story that you appreciate about your center, send that reporter an e-mail letting him or her know that you read and enjoyed the story.

Tips for Publicizing Job Corps Events or News Items: • Write a news release to send to local media. You should also submit calendar listings to local media prior to your events. • When talking to reporters, don’t use Job Corps jargon or unfamiliar acronyms. • Provide sufficient information that quickly sums up the purpose of your call or e-mail. Reporters and editors generally have very busy schedules, so it is important to always respect their deadlines. It is typically a bad idea to pitch a reporter in the late afternoon. • Create a media kit for your events. Include a news release, background information, and your center brochures in an easy-to-read package. Hand-deliver these kits to the most prominent media outlets in your area. • Take pictures when you have events on center and submit these photos to newspapers with your news release. Make sure you have signed photo release forms for anyone in the pictures you send. • If you have a commitment from a reporter to cover a story, call the day before the event and ask if he or she needs any additional information. This will also serve as a reminder of your event.

8 INSERT Appendix C – Recruitment Drive news release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: YOUR NAME DATE ORGANIZATION NAME PHONE NUMBER EMAIL ADDRESS

JOB CORPS PREPARING YOUNG PEOPLE IN INSERT STATE OR CITY FOR SUCCESS IN JOB MARKET

Recruitment Drive Now in Progress for Local Center

CITY, State — Admissions staff are looking for students to fill career technical training classes at the INSERT NAME Job Corps Center, officials announced today.

“Students at the INSERT NAME Job Corps Center not only learn to excel academically, but also receive career technical training,” said Job Corps Center Director (INSERT NAME).

The program is open to young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who meet certain income requirements.

“Job Corps has opportunities for young adults in several areas at each center, such as business technology, carpentry, health occupations, and welding,” (INSERT LAST NAME OF CENTER DIRECTOR QUOTED ABOVE) said. “Students can take the first step toward starting a career they enjoy and becoming a competitor in the workforce.”

When students enter the program, they begin working with an adviser to set career goals and devise a plan of action before instructors begin teaching them the essentials of job searching, interviewing, and how to maintain employment.

Job Corps students receive academic and career technical training from qualified instructors, who motivate students to make measurable progress at their own pace. During training, Job Corps provides residential students with room, board, basic medical and dental services, and some spending money.

Students spend on average 6 months to 2 years completing training in one of many career areas while studying for a high school diploma or GED. Successful students can also enter the Advanced Career Training (ACT) program, which builds on their specialized training. ACT students may enroll in courses at a community college at no cost. Job Corps graduates receive transitional support services, including help locating a job, housing, child care, and transportation for up to 18 months after leaving the program.

9 The Atterbury Job Corps Center, located at 1025A Hospital Road, has a capacity of 650 students. Career technical training opportunities at the center include bricklaying, business technologies, carpentry, cement masonry, computer operator, electrician, facilities maintenance, food service, health occupations, heavy equipment mechanic, heavy equipment operator, network cable installer, painting, retail sales clerk, security officer, sign and display, and welding.

Students can take advantage of many fun activities on center, including basketball, flag football, soccer, softball, volleyball, and weightlifting. In addition, the students take periodic trips to movie theaters, malls, and restaurants in the surrounding area.

For more information about Job Corps, contact XXXXX at XXXXXXXXX.

About Job Corps Administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, Job Corps is the nation’s largest career technical training and education program for low-income young people ages 16 through 24. Job Corps is a U.S. Department of Labor Equal Opportunity Employer Program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. TDD/TTY telephone number is (877) 889-5627.

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Appendix D

Community Relations

Step 1: Contact an organization in your area that has frequent interaction with your targeted recruitment pool. Ask to schedule an informational meeting with the appropriate staff member at this organization.

Step 2: Prepare a brief presentation that highlights Job Corps’ programs and services. Gather information that is specific to your center (e.g., positive media clips, awards your center has won, etc.). Consider customizing the JC 101 PowerPoint presentation available on the Materials Marketplace. Bring relevant materials for each audience that you will be addressing. For instance, provide information about your child care center when visiting a women’s shelter.

Step 3: Take a student with you to this informational meeting who can share his or her experience with the agency staff member.

Step 4: Take all necessary enrollment or information forms with you.

Step 5: Leave brochures and fliers behind after the meeting and ask the staff member to always refer eligible candidates to Job Corps.

Step 6: Send a thank-you note and follow up to confirm your partnership about a week later.

Step 7: Once you’ve established a relationship, ask if you can post your center’s activities in their newsletters. Also ask for permission to add them to your “Friends of Job Corps” e-mail database.

Ideas for Hosting Community Events on Campus • Invite members of the community to hold their sporting events at your center free of charge. Allow Job Corps students to help with parking, serve refreshments, keep score, operate the scoreboard, sing the national anthem, referee/umpire, or announce starting lineups. The Job Corps center dance team or choir could perform before and after games and at halftime. • Host a local Rotary Club meeting at your center. Arrange student-led center tours, and allow the Culinary Arts students to cater a meal. Ask the Student Government Association president and other student leaders to serve as hosts, deliver opening remarks, or distribute your center’s marketing materials.