Champaign County Regional Planning Commission’s Bright Practice
Over the last two years, the RPC Early Childhood Education Program has struggled to recruit qualified teachers to fill vacancies. In the spring of 2019, our team faced this
challenge by thinking creatively and developing strategies that were different from our normal recruiting efforts. These strategies included videotaping staff and families about
their Head Start experiences and then posting those videos on our website, Facebook, and Twitter pages; contracting with the movie theaters to show the videos during the
previews; developing a catch phrase to attract the attention of potential applicants through the use of billboards and radio spots; offering “On the Spot” interviews at job
fairs; posting advertisements on the inside and outside of the Mass Transit Buses; contracting with ShopperLocal to add Head Start recruitment information to the register
receipts for the Dollar General and Family Dollar Stores; participating in interviews on the local TV stations; offering a free day off to those staff who refer an applicant who is hired
and maintains employment for at least six months; and creating a Head Start Awareness Walk to meet and share information with the community. In addition, we are hiring
applicants who want to begin a career in early childhood, providing them with on the job training, and paying for their Child Development Associate (CDA) Certification.
As a team, we analyze the recruitment strategies regularly to determine what is working to attract applicants and identify ways to improve. Innovation is crucial to the continuing
success of the program.
*This picture is one of the Billboards we posted on a major street in Champaign, IL.
*Our program information was added to Family Dollar/Dollar General register receipts. We reached thousands of people.
To watch the video click HERE
*Below is the link to the recruitment videos on our website if you click the icon on the bottom right.