Bring Them and Keep Them: “Successful Recruitment and

Retention Planning”

Cora E. Giddens BA, BS

UT Southwestern Medical Center1

HIV/STD prevention providers experience difficulty recruiting and retaining their program’s target population due to the lack of community input during program planning and a number of other external and/or structural factors (poverty, lack of access to physical/mental health services, stigma around sexual orientation, childcare and housing needs, transportation barriers, etc.).

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The target population’s personal and/or internal factors (addiction, distrust of the system, low self-esteem, rejection by family/friends, etc.) are also challenges.

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Prevention programs must develop a recruitment and retention plan during program planning based on input from the target population. It is necessary for the plan to include techniques, approaches, and/or methods that will remove barriers and ensure successful recruitment and retention during the implantation of the plan.

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Recruitment & Retention• Effective recruitment and retention

strategies are critical to ensuring successful programs

• Strong participation rates are often challenging for prevention providers– This is particularly true when

agencies are providing new services or outreaching to new communities or populations

Recruitment is a proactive ongoing effort that includes distribution of

marketing pieces, building personal contacts, and increasing referrals.

Attendance and/or participation in the following local events can produce a

positive client base from which to recruit:

• Community-based organization meetings• AIDS service organization meetings• Ryan White Council meetings• Agency network meetings• Parents and families of lesbians and gays

meetings 6

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Be knowledgeable and call on all area HIV/AIDS service provider locations such

as:

• HIV/AIDS clinics and health care services (men’s and women’s)

• HIV/AIDS dental services• HIV/AIDS food pantry• HIV/AIDS child care services• HIV/AIDS case management agencies• HIV/AIDS support groups• HIV/AIDS residential homes

Be open to expanding your search to venues that you do not know there are HIV+ persons, but go with the intent to make known the opportunity to access the intervention is available. Such sites

maybe:• Alcohol and/or drug council agencies • Alcohol and/or drug support groups• Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender service providers• Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender events and/or

programs• Counseling centers• Health departments - free clinics• Colleges and/or technical schools• Homeless shelters• Soup kitchens• Day centers

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Methods of Recruitment

OutreachInternal referral sourcesExternal referral sourcesSocial marketingTargeted client engagement

Agency Considerations Related to Recruitment:

• Agency knowledge of the intervention

• Appropriate method of screening potential clients

• Reputation and credibility• Experience working with behavioral

interventions10

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Planning a Recruitment Strategy:

Agencies developing a recruitment strategy should answer the following questions related to their target populations:

Who is being targeted through the recruitment? Where is the appropriate place to recruit

clients?When should recruitment be done? What messages should be delivered during

recruitment? How should the messages be delivered?Who is the most appropriate person to do

recruitment?

What is Retention?

• A conscious and specific process that keeps your participant returning to programs. The process finally engages those same persons to refer people from the social network to your agency.

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Retention relies on:

• Facilitation skills, creative incentives, adaptation, follow-up, and intervention maintenance.

• Fostering active support for participants by including family members to give encouragement to attend, increasing access to sessions through flexible meeting times, and removing other barriers to participation are some additional techniques used to improve retention.

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Tactics for Successful Retention

Frequent contactsMaintaining personal relationshipsIdentifying client’s likelihood of

returningEase clients into the programClient-CenteredReferrals from current participantsCompetent and confident staffIntervention that is adapted to meet

the needs and strengths of the intervention population 14

What’s required to do it wellWhat’s required to do it well

• Be comfortable with the subject and situation

• Be confident

• Be credible

• Be enthusiastic about the subject

• Be knowledgeable

• Be organized

• Be prepared

• Be witty and humorous (know your participants)

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Retention Ideas:

• Phone calls and/or e-mails for reminders: before, between, and after the groups/meetings

• Contact case managers for assistance• Make available information on public

transportation and/or coupons or passes to ride for free

• Identify convenient and confidential location for groups/meetings to meet

• Have flexible meeting times• On-site day care may be needed• Make available resource packets with referral

information and basic life skills 16

More Retention Ideas:

• Keep the sessions fun and interactive• Serve refreshments• Celebrate any birthdays within the group• Have a gift for a lottery give a-way at the end

of each session• Have incentives upon completion of each

session so each participant will receive some token for their time (ie. gift cards, fast food coupons, etc.)

• Have a graduation meal at the last session• Award certificates upon completion 17

Thank You

Cora E. GiddensUT Southwestern Medical Center

400 S. Zang Blvd. #520Dallas, TX. 75208

214.645.7316Cora.giddens@utsouthwestern.edu