Client:

Juma Seattle

Team members:

Lucas Anderson, Amy Harper, Hannah Kim, Nghi Nhan, Joy Shibata, Rachel Van’t Land, Jeremy Williams

Challenge Statement:

How might we better engage with the Seattle community to reach more youth?

Organization Overview:

Juma is a career development and job placement organization for youth in Seattle. They provide entry-level jobs at Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field for youth from low-income households and underserved communities. In addition to job placement and career development opportunities, Juma provides financial literacy training. Since their beginning in 2013, Juma Seattle has given jobs to over 625 youth and hopes to employ over 1,200 youth by 2020.

Team Research:

Through working with Juma, the Changemaker team found that about 50% of applicants did not show up to the interview. They also discovered Juma was attracting the wrong age demographic some of the time. The desired demographic is youth 18-24. In interviews with two youths in Seattle, the team discovered that there was not always an awareness that the job came with extra benefits, like skill development programs. The team was able to hear directly from the demographic during a focus group of several youths.

Problems Identified:

Juma Seattle was having difficulty attracting the right applicants. While at job fairs and recruitment events, the organization did not know how to stand out amongst multiple booths. Once youth were reached, the secondary problem was retaining their interest with the extra benefits of Juma’s programs.

Design Solution:

1. The Changemaker team first provided a journey map and book of research findings. Based on their findings, they created Juma business cards with short description of the jobs and a direct link to the application. This allows for easy access to the job application process.

2. The team also wanted to attract the right demographic through effective marketing materials. They collaborated with youth in Juma’s program on marketing collateral including posters that are concise, eye-catching and easily printed in Juma’s office. Partnering with youth was core to the foundation of all of the work to ensure it would resonate more strongly with the population Juma serves.

Challenges:

Originally, the team wanted to redesign the website. From their research and observation, it seemed like the website was geared towards donors and less to the youth. Juma Seattle is part of a nationwide organization. When asked about the website, they were said to be already working on a redesign at the larger level.

Results:

While immediate effectiveness has yet to be measured, Juma is optimistic that the changes will contribute to future success including increasing applications by +20%. Immediate benefits included the time saved with the production of marketing collateral including the posters, cards and fliers, and incorporating the voice of youth in the copy and direction of the visuals. A long term potential benefit was that the Juma team pitched the materials to Juma National so the research insights and marketing produced can be used beyond Seattle. Mason Moore, the Executive Director, believes these marketing materials should help in ease of presentation to attract more people of the right demographic at job fairs and through partnerships with community-based organizations. The next recruitment opportunity for Juma is in February 2019.

Fun fact:

The youth in the focus group came up with the featured word on the posters “create”: The job you want, the future you create.

"Working with the Changemaker series and all of the creatives changed the way we think as a 'youth-serving' organization, specifically around the approach to solving our most pressing problems. Often in nonprofits, capacity constrains our ability and the time it takes to solve complex issues. We might be able to perform a quick fix or react as issues arise but it is difficult to find long term solutions. 

Being exposed to Human Centered Design and a group of incredibly dedicated and talented Changemakers helped us create a thoughtful strategy to recruit youth into our program. Our messaging and promotional recruitment materials were not very clear on what Juma is as a transitional job program for youth. Because of that we were not hitting our numbers and many youth that did apply were not really sure what they were signing up for. Our team listened, led with empathy, and took these questions to our stakeholders, staff and youth clients. In the end, the youth themselves were a major part of creating a solution. 

We could not be more excited to have a new toolkit of recruitment marketing materials that are youth focused, beautifully designed, and have crystal clear messaging. It was worth every second of our time and energy and something that will have a lasting impact on Juma and our work for years to come."

– Mason Moore, Executive Director, Juma Seattle

—Jessinia Ruff