Illinois Community College Board (ICCB)
Adult Education & Literacy Statewide Outreach Project
The ICCB is leading a statewide campaign and capacity building initiative to support adult programs, community colleges, school districts and community organizations with student recruitment. A collaborative effort between Full Capacity Marketing and the Adult Learning Resource Center, the initiative includes a highly strategic digital campaign to raise awareness about the value of adult education coupled with communication tools and assets to support enrollment efforts at the local level. Additional program support will be provided by SIPDC and ICSPS.
In addition to the statewide campaign, the outreach project has several other components to support Adult Education & Literacy programs in Illinois, including:
- Online professional development sessions to help build capacity and sustainability and to support programs in adopting the campaign successfully.
- Technical assistance to programs with low enrollments.
- Research and recommendations for strengthening referral processes from WIOA partners and K-12 school districts.
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Project Updates
November 12, 2021–See what adult educators are saying! Progress continues on the statewide Adult Education outreach initiative. Click to read about what’s happening and register for our first webinar.
November 4, 2021—Registration is open for the first Outreach PD webinar, “Raising Awareness & Increasing Enrollments: Leveraging the Statewide Adult Education Outreach Campaign.” Registration is open to ALL staff and instructors employed by ICCB-funded adult education programs. Register here!
October 28, 2021—The pandemic has created a unique set of challenges for adult education providers across the state in recruiting adult learners. What’s one solution to low enrollments? Read the latest about the Statewide Outreach Campaign…
Project Plan
Click each heading to see more details.
During this phase of the campaign, the campaign leadership team developed:
- A diverse Advisory Committee comprised of adult education practitioners representing small & large community colleges, CBOs, high school programs, and ROEs, as well as representatives from WIOA partners.
- Market research and persona development to create emotional campaign messaging.
View the Kickoff Meeting PowerPoint Slides.
This segment of the campaign plan focuses on campaign themes, including:
- Campaign messaging and testing
- Logo options and brand style guide
In the final “planning” phase of the campaign, Full Capacity Marketing will develop the following with feedback from the Advisory Committee:
- A student-focused campaign microsite (landing page)
- A statewide media plan with analysis of different markets
- A Communications Toolkit to support and enhance programs’ outreach efforts
As the outreach campaign is rolled out to the public, Full Capacity Marketing will lead professional development events to help programs utilize the statewide campaign and Communications Toolkit to support programs. Topics will include:
- An overview of the statewide campaign
- Creating systems to increase enrollments
- Local outreach
- Measuring campaign results
- Public relations and advocacy
- Grassroots efforts to recruit learners
Campaign advertising will begin over the winter holidays. Campaign segments will include an awareness campaign to raise awareness of adult education, followed by segmented outreach. Advertising will be comprehensive across a variety of media, including:
- Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more)
- Google ads
- Print media (billboards and mass transit)
- Mass media (TV and radio)
