Improving Services and Performance Toolkit for Effective Front-line Services to Youth

1. Improving Services andPerformanceToolkit for Effective Front-line Services to Youth Module One: Recruitment, Intake and Enrollment

2. Module One Objectives • To understand the importance of recruitment and the case manager’s role and to identify successful recruitment strategies; • To review the purposes and steps of intake and enrollment and the case manager’s role; • To demonstrate how to both connect with a young person and gain and document the necessary information for eligibility.

3. Recruitment:Why Recruitment May Be Needed: • It may be the youth’s first contact with a community-based employment program. • To overcome external, psychological and cultural barriers to youth participation in employment and training programs. Case managers may be responsible for recruitment and will need to integrate the youth into the whole process, creating a partnership between recruiters, case managers, and job developers.

4. Recruiting Out-of-School-Youth • Connecting with youth where they are; • Canvassing; • Using a “sector approach”; • Scheduling; • Youth serving as recruiters; • Carrying identification and information; • Collaborating with partners.

5. Recruiting In-School-Youth:Help for at-risk youth to stay in school, improve academically, graduate • Case Managers can be placed on-site at high schools. • Talking with school counselors can help identify at-risk youth. • Recruitment can take place in alternative education programs.

6. Review and collect data - “How did you hear about the program?” What basic info collected from youth? Is info necessary for follow-up collected? How is info used to plan programs and activities? Questions youth and parents most frequently ask? How are youth participants involved in outreach and recruitment? Improving Recruitment

7. Pre-screening, Intake and Enrollment Purposes: • Determine eligibility. • Collect core information – only what’s needed – not more. • Orient to program and expectations. • Not just filling in forms.

8. Stress the following points: • Youth as active versus passive partners; • Case manager helps identify and deliver services; • Young person does the work – attends classes, appointments, other program obligations, maintains regular contact with case manager on a schedule to achieve goals.

9. Establish Rapport • May be more than one appointment – each starting with small talk. • Time for youth to relax – be comfortable. • Intake is an opportunity to get to know each other - to establish on-going relationship. • Determine goals, areas of success, barriers to achieving goals.