Deciding to take a young stranger into your home and heart is NOT an ‘impulse purchase’. Rare is the person who gets the idea to foster today and signs up for a class tomorrow. It takes some people years until they finally do it. So our recruitment campaign is designed to not only attract those who are ready, but plant the seed and begin gently growing the idea of fostering inside more and more people in your county—so future training classes can more readily be filled, and future foster family quotas be met. ______________________________________________________________________ OUT THERE IN YOUR COUNTY RIGHT NOW ARE RESIDENTS WHO... ...NEVER CONSIDERED FOSTERING: GOAL: Awaken the parent inside How do you get an individual to even begin thinking about the idea of bringing a child into their home? With emotionally driven messages using the power of print, video and sound. ______________________________________________________________________ OUT THERE IN YOUR COUNTY RIGHT NOW ARE RESIDENTS WHO... ...HAVE HAD FOSTERING CROSS THEIR MIND: GOAL: Educate and prepare them Now that the individual is considering the idea of fostering, how do we further their commitment to the idea? With a foster-focused microsite containing enlightening information and videos about the challenges and rewards of fostering. ______________________________________________________________________ OUT THERE IN YOUR COUNTY RIGHT NOW ARE RESIDENTS WHO... ...HAD BEEN SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING FOSTERING: GOAL: Activate them into taking action How do you create a sense of urgency and excitement to move forward? With engaging messages featuring the start date of your classes, and a greeting portal that further emboldens and encourages them to take acton!

With one month left until their foster parent pre-service classes were set to begin, only two people were registered. That’s when a foster parent recruitment campaign for Ashtabula County Children Services kicked into action. This intense and engaging three week recruitment campaign was seen and heard in newspapers, cable TV, radio, and online. And caused over 400 different Ashtabula residents to visit a special site where they learned a little more about how to become a foster parent … and why it was so worth it. By that first day of classes, all 20 available seats were filled. “I reviewed the campaign elements and media plan with my co-workers. They were excited about having a coordinated campaign working on our behalf. We didn’t have to do anything except wait for the calls.” —Tania Burnett, Director, Ashtabula Children Services

Aside from the obvious benefits and better outcomes for the child (being with a family setting in his/her hometown -vs- a group home or residential center, possibly in another county) there are the practical savings in placement costs. For Ashtabula, the average rate they were paying to place their children in each type of setting was as follows: Foster Family: $46/day $1380/month $16,790/year Group Home: $185/day $5550/month $67,525/year Residential Center: $297/day $8910/month $108,405/year So having just one more foster family available would mean another, better option for a child, and savings of $50,000 (more than the campaign cost) to $91,000 for Ashtabula when placing that child for one year.