Recruitment and Placement

• Develop a Recruitment Plan
• Identify Your Recruitment Needs
• Advertise and Market Your Position
  • Recruiting for Retention
  • Recruiting for Diversity
    • Members from Ethnic and Cultural Minority Groups
    • Low-Income and Service-Recipient Populations
    • Members With Disabilities
    • Members From a Wide Age Range
    • Members locally in Rural Settings
  • Choosing Outreach Channels
  • Creating Marketing Materials
  • Helping Partner Sites Recruit
• Screen and Place New Members
• Prepare for New Members

Home > Recruitment and Placement > Advertise and Market Your Position > Recruit for Diversity > Recruiting From a Wide Age Range

Recruiting From a Wide Age Range

Attracting members from the late teens to 55 and over

Since inclusion is a guiding principle of national service, it makes sense to seek members who represent various age groups in your community.

Recent High School Grads
Offering service opportunities to young recruits, fresh out of high school, can be especially fruitful. Often, service programs can be more understanding and flexible than a traditional employer.

When working with recruits fresh out of high school, consider this advice from Notre Dame AmeriCorps (Apopka, FL):

• In educational programs, place these members in structured settings, preferably working with children at least 4-5 years younger
• Provide additional support in completing routine reporting such as timesheets, data collection, and progress reports
• Offer counseling on work habits and topics such as appropriate professional dress

Family Service Corps AmeriCorps (Butler, PA) has members ranging from recent high school graduates to senior citizens. Director Karen Zapp says she recruits service recipients from partner sites as well as volunteers in those agencies.

Click the play button to hear more about attracting teen members.

College Students
Many service programs draw their recruits from the ranks of college students.

The Iowa Campus Compact VISTA program distributes postcards at college fairs, in campus placement offices, and campus mail rooms.

Download a copy of the postcard that introduces VISTA, the specific program, and has room for potential candidates to provide contact information.

Enlist your local college's design program to create a postcard and/or brochure as a service-learning project. Consider producing materials in different languages and targeting different age groups.

Members 55 and Over

This tutorial on Recruiting and Engaging Older Members helps you identify where to find older members in your community and discusses why national service is such a good fit.

The opportunity for AmeriCorps members 55 and older to transfer their education award to a child, grandchild, or foster child may enhance your recruiting efforts (this benefit is not available to VISTAs). Recipients have ten years to use the award (a child must meet citizenship requirements for AmeriCorps).

Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work, and social purpose, published a paper related to the Serve America Act's new Encore service provisions. See http://encore.org for resources of interest national service members who are in their 50s and beyond.

Check out the effective practices at The Resource Center, provided by Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning, on finding and motivating older members.

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