Getting Students Involved

--orginally printed in November 2004

"We just don't have enough students involved to get anything rolling about sexual assault awareness on our campus (or in our schools). What can we do?" Schools and students are constantly looking for ways to get more people engaged on the topic of sexual assault awareness. If you are looking to get more people involved, good news! Schools are having great success with the following concept.

Your #1 Recruiting Tool is an inspired audience! When you put on a thought-provoking program that really intrigues students, you will have them interested and wanting to make a difference. At that exact moment is when you ask for people to sign-up.

EXAMPLE: Recently on 2 different campuses that I was speaking at, the school provided me with an organization on campus that was trying to get more students involved with sexual assault awareness. At the end of my presentation (when I was discussing how each person in the audience has to decide what he/she is going to personally do to help), I brought up this great organization on their campus and how each person only needs to sign-up to start the change. Signing-up only means leaving your name, phone number, and/or e-mail address. The form is right here on stage and will only take you seconds to fill out.

The results? At least 1/3 of the audiences have been signing up (with an audience of only 100, you are talking about anadditional 33 students to work with). Even if only 1/3 of those students that sign-up do anything, you have 10 MORE STUDENTS helping you on campus.

You can utilize this recruiting tool at all programming (Peer Educators, Speakers, etc...). For recruiting to work, the presenters MUST be passionate and excited about the organization when they talk about signing up (upbeat and positive energy). After all, "Energy Energizes"! Have the students talk about how much fun they have working together. Everyone likes to have fun.