Recruitment/Retention

Can I ask you how it is that you recruit the kids and keep them engaged in the program? Is there a high retention rate for the kids?  -Carolina


Ok, so let me explain a little bit deeper about Seattle Youth Garden Works.  It is basically a job training program where the youth get paid.  So they keep coming back every day mostly because they are getting paid to.  Also because if they complete successfully then we can be a reference for them for a next job.  A reference for most of these youth is one of the hardest things for them to get, and EVERY job requires it.  They also keep coming back because it is project based.  It is not an after-school program where they come, do some craft, eat a snack, play tag, and go home.  They have a set project that they are working on and are in charge of.  And if they plant and grow things well, they will end up making more money at the farmers market because they will have a higher quantity and quality of vegetables.  But in general when the program is project based and youth driven they are much more engaged and can own what they are doing and will WANT to keep coming back.  So, yeah, for most of these youth, the big thing keeping them coming back each day is the pay check (they make minimum wage which is $8.55 in Washington State, the highest in the country) but most of them are really engaged in the garden and what we are planting and genuinely care about learning about this stuff.  I really do think that ALL of them would have rather been working and learning in the garden then playing games at the community center or going on the field trip yesterday.  I went to a conference a few month back about after school programs for youth.  They couldn't stress enough that the two biggest things for keeping youth engaged and coming back were being project based so they have something to continue working on each day they come, and being youth driven/led, letting them be in charge and come up with their own ideas and empowering them.  I have seen this first hand, too.  The programs where there is no project and the youth have no input, their is a very low retention rate.  And programs that have one or both of those have much higher retention rate.


Even with these things, project based, youth driven, and a pay check, we usually do not have a 100% graduation rate.  Actually, our summer session was the first time EVER that we had 100% graduation rate.  Working with homeless and under-served youth there are always things that come up that the youth can not control.  Our winter session has the worst for retention.  Winter, of course, is the worst season for homeless youth.  The shelters are even more crowded than usual and it is super hard for them to get a spot in a bed.  They get sick very easily because they are outside all day.  Some of them go elsewhere for the winter months.  There are just so many reasons why we lose a lot of youth in the winter.  We actually already lost one of the youth this season, before they even started.  The youth's young daughter was having lots of medical problems, so she dropped out to take care of her and try to figure out what was going on.  I am VERY sure that she could have used the money from this job.  So I would say for the most part, we have really good retention of youth, but for reasons that they usually can't control, we do end up losing a few along the way.


As far as recruitment, we have 4 different seasons of crews: winter, fall, summer, spring.  They are each slightly different because of what the garden tasks are during those times and a few other factors.  So we do hardcore recruitment 4 times a year.  Recently we have not had to do much recruitment because not only do most agencies already know about us and refer their youth to us and hang up our flyers, but the youth are spreading the word of Seattle Youth Garden Works to their friends.  So we usually have more than enough applications from youth wanting to do our program.  But we still do recruitment.  Mostly at the shelters and drop in centers in the University District and downtown.  We have a lot of support from the UDSPA (University District Service Providers Alliance) which is an alliance of all the agencies working with homeless and under served youth in the University District of Seattle.  We have monthly meeting of the alliance and when it is that time of the year, we bring our flyers and they are more than happy to distribute and hang up our flyers and talk about them with the youth.  We do still go to places and give presentation for the youth or go around to the drop in centers during the day and talk to some youth.  We also go to a few of the alternative schools in Seattle, especially for the winter crew because it is during the school day since it gets dark earlier.  Most of the agencies all around Seattle are very familiar with our program now and it is pretty easy to do recruitment.  It is great that the youth are spreading the word about our program with their friends, that is how you know a program is successful.


Once we recruit the youth, they fill out an application and get it to us.  We then do an interview in the garden so they can see exactly where it is and see if they will be able to get there every day.  Also just so they can see the garden and see what they are getting themselves into.  And then, of course, after the interview, I call each youth and let them know if they were hired or not.  There are a bunch of reasons why people qualify for our program.  It used to be ONLY homeless youth, but a few years ago they extended it to under served as well.  Some examples are: homeless/couch surfing, formerly homeless, in foster care, aged out of foster care, recent immigrant, independent living program, low income, juvenile detention/convicted of a crime, gangs, living in a violent situation, abuse, neglect, etc, etc.  In addition, I fill out an assessment of their interview and then when I do the lesson on interviewing and we have mock interviews, I fill out a similar assessment and we compare the two so the youth can see how they improved.


So basically, recruitment is pretty awesome, and retention is fairly good, although it can always be better.


PS. The field trip today was not terrible.  We had a lot of fun playing football, ultimate frisbee, ping pong, and foosball.  It was cool to just let loose a little and enjoy ourselves.  On the ride back we had a pop song sing along in the car.