Recruit the Inner City
I am a product of that same development known as the Elizabeth Park Housing Development.Many social workers came and initiated band-aid remedies for the social/economic problems that ailed us. They lacked a viable plan to recruit us. Most went home crying. They had good intentions. We were just more interested in sabotaging their efforts then gaining any benefit from their service or mission.Most of the social workers were too easy. They wanted us to like them. To that end they would cave in to our wishes and demands.Armed with this knowledge I had to devise a clever scheme to attract these kids to our tennis program. I knew I had to design an attractive program replete with incentives.Here’s the plan:I purchased a very attractive Wilson tennis racquet. I showed it to Damon. He wanted it in the worst way. He was ripe for the recruiting challenge. I challenged him to a match with my eight-year-old son. Damon was amused. He was amused all the more when he saw how short my son was.He jumped at the opportunity. My son won the match easily. Damon was so determined to win that racquet that he joined up. As predicted many kids came with him.In order to retain them we loaded up on incentives. 1.Every youth who attended a program received one ticket. They were given another ticket for good behavior. At the end of each session we held a drawing. Two lucky winners would receive $5 dollars. As you can see the tickets were at a premium and helped to encourage appropriate behavior. 2.Summer camps at locations such as Seven Springs Mountain Resort and Punderson State Park. 3.Indoor tennis at a club during the winter months. 4.Advanced tennis players who traveled the country competing in tournaments. 5.Social outings including football, basketball and baseball games. Once we were up and running we encountered a huge obstacle. The gym floor at the Community center we used needed to have the floor redone. We worried thatnone of the kids would attend the mandatory prevention program since we were unable to play tennis. To our surprise the program grew. It became apparent that the prevention component, consisting of large group activities was at least as rewarding for the kids as tennis. Click here or on the tennis ball to leave recruiting strategies and return to the Home Page.
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