Marketing, Recruitment, and Program Participation

1. Marketing, Recruitment, and Program Participation A Meeting of Children’s Bureau-funded Healthy Marriage Grantees in Florida Sharon McGroder Ph.D. & Umi Chong M.A. The Lewin Group February 6, 2006

2. Overview of Agenda • Why Healthy Marriage and Child Welfare? • Brief Overview of Grantee Projects • Presentation of the “Program Participation Framework” • Program Participation Successes & Bottlenecks • Lunch: Marketing Marriage Education to Child Welfare Workers • Moving Forward: Grantee Action Planning • Part I—Small group during Feb 6th Orlando meeting • Part II—On-site visit later in the week

3. Why Healthy Marriage? • Marriage research • Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (TANF law) • Healthy marriage movement • ACF Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI) “To help couples, who have chosen marriage for themselves, gain greater access to marriage education services, on a voluntary basis, where they can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage.”

4. Why Child Welfare and Healthy Marriage? • Healthy marriage needs of the child welfare population • Foster/adoptive couples (voluntary CW pop’n) • Referred for suspected CAN (mandatory CW pop’n) • “At risk” for entering child welfare system

5. Proposed Federal Funding for Healthy Marriage Programs Amount: • $150,000,000 per year for FYs 2006-2010 For: • Healthy Marriage ($100,000,000 per year) • Responsible Fatherhood ($50,000,000 per year)

6. Proposed Federal Funding for Healthy Marriage Programs Allowable “healthy marriage” activities: • Public advertising campaigns • Education in high schools • Marriage education, marriage skills, relationship skills programs for non-married pregnant women & non-married expectant fathers. • Pre-marital education and marriage skills programs for engaged couples and for couples or individuals interested in marriage. • Marriage enhancement and marriage skills training programs for married couples. • Divorce reduction programs that teach relationship skills. • Marriage mentoring programs • Programs to reduce the disincentives to marriage in means-tested aid programs

7. Proposed Federal Funding for Healthy Marriage Programs “Responsible fatherhood” activities: • to promote marriage or sustain marriage • to promote responsible parenting • to foster economic stability by helping fathers improve their economic status • to promote responsible fatherhood

8. FL Healthy Marriage Initiative • www.myfloridafamilies.com

9. FL HMI Grantee Projects The View from 30,000’ (5 minutes) • Project • Cluster/Funding Stream (SSF or PAAM)? • Project Title? • Duration? • Overarching Goal of Project? • Target population? • Geographic service area? • Service delivery target numbers? • Intervention • What is the intervention/what services are provided? • Which healthy marriage curriculum is the project using? • How is the intervention provided? Who delivers the intervention? • What was the rationale for intervention? • Partnering Organizations • What organizations are key partners? • What are their roles? • Referral Pathways • What organizations are key referrals sources? • What are points of intake and the referral pathways into your project?

10. Program Participation Framework • Target • Population • Who are they? • Where are they? • Marketing & Recruitment • Advertise • Outreach to clients • Outreach to services providers • Referrals • Enrollment, Intake, Registration • How enroll/register? • How many points of entry, or intake? • Client Participation • Individuals? Couples? Families? Children? • #, % participating (at all) in HM program? In each grant service? • Completion • #, % completing all program sessions? • Why miss sessions? • What helps them complete program?

11. Program Participation Framework • The Program Participation Framework (PPF) is a general schematic that illustrates stages of recruitment into HMI program • Stages include: • Identifying a Target Population • Marketing the Program • Client Recruitment • Client Enrollment • Client Participation • Program Completion

12. Program Participation Framework • Target • Population • Who are they? • Where are they? • Marketing & Recruitment • Advertise • Outreach to clients • Outreach to services providers • Referrals • Enrollment, Intake, Registration • How enroll/register? • How many points of entry, or intake? • Client Participation • Individuals? Couples? Families? Children? • #, % participating (at all) in HM program? In each grant service? # of Clients • Completion • #, % completing all program sessions? • Why miss sessions? • What helps them complete program? Program Duration

13. Program Participation Framework • The PPF also (roughly) depicts the flow of clients through your program. • Ideally, there would be no drop-off • At each stage there is opportunity for client participation drop-off • Target population - Not broad and clear enough • Marketing & Recruitment - Content of marketing message and processes are not appropriately tailored for the intended audience • Enrollment - No clear and established processes • Participation - Logistical burden is high and “touch” & flexibility low • Completion – Program is not relevant and not meeting the needs of the client/population

14. Program Participation Framework • Target • Population • Who are they? • Where are they? Environment: FL/ Local Community • Marketing & Recruitment • Advertise • Outreach to clients • Outreach to services providers • Referrals • Enrollment, Intake, Registration • How enroll/register? • How many points of entry, or intake? Your HMI Program • Client Participation • Individuals? Couples? Families? Children? • #, % participating (at all) in HM program? In each grant service? • Completion • #, % completing all program sessions? • Why miss sessions? • What helps them complete program?

15. Program Participation Framework • There are different contextual issues and linkages that affect the success of program recruitment and each stage • Contextual: Know the environmental issues • Florida Child Welfare Issues • Local Community Issues • Social Service Organizational Issues • Linkages: Ensure there are established & seamless linkages as well as understanding: • Between each stage to the context • Between stage to stage

16. Program Participation Framework • Target • Population • Who are they? • Where are they? Environment: FL/ Local Community • Marketing & Recruitment • Advertise • Outreach to clients • Outreach to services providers • Referrals • Enrollment, Intake, Registration • How enroll/register? • How many points of entry, or intake? Your HMI Program • Client Participation • Individuals? Couples? Families? Children? • #, % participating (at all) in HM program? In each grant service? • Completion • #, % completing all program sessions? • Why miss sessions? • What helps them complete program? Feedback Loop

17. Program Participation Framework • Incorporate learnings into: • Refine existing activities • Tweak the message • Target different audience (e.g., new champions, new people, new organizational level) • Identify new activities • What have other sites been doing? • What areas have been off limits?

18. Program Participation Framework • PPF allows you to “diagnose” your program: • Pinpoint where your program is succeeding • Pinpoint where your program is encountering challenges • Questions to think about in diagnosing: • Where are the biggest drop-offs or bottlenecks? • What aspects of the program are you getting great results? • What is the rate limiting step in the service delivery process? • What are the structures and processes you wish you had? • What are the contextual issues at play? • What learnings have you fed-back into your program?

19. Identifying Successes (+) and Bottlenecks (-) on PPF • Diagnose your program using blank the PPF (10 minutes) • Use “+” to indicate where you are having success • Use “-” to indicate where you are having challenges • Each site will share and explain their program’s diagnosis (10 minutes per site) • This will be an opportunity to share experiences and learn from other grantees

20. Program Participation Framework • Target • Population • Who are they? • Where are they? • Marketing & Recruitment • Advertise • Outreach to clients • Outreach to services providers • Referrals • Enrollment, Intake, Registration • How enroll/register? • How many points of entry, or intake? • Client Participation • Individuals? Couples? Families? Children? • #, % participating (at all) in HM program? In each grant service? • Completion • #, % completing all program sessions? • Why miss sessions? • What helps them complete program?

21. Marketing Marriage Education to Child Welfare Workers Dr. Dana Christensen • University of Louisville • Recipient of a “Child Welfare Training” grant from the Children’s Bureau

22. Marketing and Recruitment Strategies • 7 core components of Marketing and Recruitment strategies: • Outreach • Information Dissemination • Involvement of Clients in Marketing Efforts • Expanding the Target Population • Networking and Collaboration • Conducting In-service trainings • Refining Content of the Marketing Message

23. M & R Strategies:Outreach • Involves reaching out to organizations that “touch” or serve the target population • Outreach efforts can be divided into two categories • Outreach to organizations • Effective if there’s buy-in (i.e., believe that HM services can benefit their clients) and minimal burden • Outreach to clients • Effective if program is advertised in venues where target population is/ frequent/ get information

24. M & R Strategies:Information Dissemination • Involves distributing materials to publicize the program to increase recruitment • Can be targeted to organizations and clients • Effectiveness comes from: • Materials are tailored to the understanding of the audience and convey relevance or benefits gained • Use dissemination modes that maximize cost benefit i.e.,”biggest bang for the buck”

25. M & R Strategies:Involve Clients In M & R Efforts • Involves using former or current clients as champions or ambassadors by giving testimonials • Effectiveness comes from: • Allowing organizations or potential clients to hear first-hand accounts of benefits or positive impact • Client willingness is high, client crisis state low • Being strategic in planning and tracking potential opportunities

26. M & R Strategies:Expand the Target Population • Involves expanding target population beyond the child welfare population • Effectiveness comes from: • Being broad enough to rule in and capture all potential clients including adoptive and foster couples • Not losing “HEALTHY MARRIAGE” focus; don’t dilute HM • Getting ACF approval and working with evaluators

27. M & R Strategies:Networking and Collaboration • Involves establishing linkages and partnerships with relevant organizations and opinion leaders within the community • Effectiveness comes from: • Engaging in and offering mutually beneficial relationship; make it a win-win connection where collaboration leads to serving mission of BOTH organizations/programs

28. M & R Strategies:Conducting In-service Training • Involves educating front-line and administrative staff about benefits of HM services to the well-being of their clients • Effectiveness comes from: • Communicating the relevance of HM services • Extent to which making a referral or incorporating HM services into case plan is not burdensome • Extent to which HM services is kept on the “radar screen” of case workers • Support top-down and bottom-up

29. M & R Strategies:Refining Content of the Marketing Message • Involves carefully crafting and fine-tuning the message in a positive manner • Effectiveness comes from: • Communicating the benefits or outcomes from receiving HM services • Presenting the program as a great opportunity, education, or enrichment • Including who, what, where, how to contact as well as the schedule and agenda of workshops, sessions, etc. • Noting it is FREE!!!

30. Action Planning—Part I • EXERCISE: • Please develop at least 1 action step to overcome each bottleneck • Develop Action Step • Identify Roles and Responsibilities to achieve Action Step • Articulate Immediate Next Steps to Implement Action Step • Pick a person from each group to report out • REPORT OUT:

31. Action Planning—Part II • Lewin will be conducting subsequent site visits: • Feb. 6th - UCF (Orlando) • Feb. 7th - HMFF (Jacksonville) • Feb. 8th - CHS and BBCBC (Tallahassee) • Include key referring partners, DAs, CBCs if possible • Complete EVALUATIONS!!!