Families Seeking Families

Ever thought about fostering? We think about it all the time.

The Saskatchewan Foster Families Association (SFFA) supports foster parents through education and advocacy to create healthy homes and brighter futures for children and youth in care.

We've had the good fortune to work with SFFA since the day we opened our doors in 2016.

SFFA Executive Director Deb Davies made things clear at our first meeting. "We're all about families helping families, and there's an ongoing need to recruit and train willing foster parents."

That's where the Amplify crew stepped in.

Challenge Fostering Recruitment

Our initial challenge was to discover the common attributes of successful foster parents, then attract like-minded potential candidate parents and families to the fold.

After a few deep conversations with active and experienced foster parents, we began to understand the very special qualities that these caring individuals offer to those in their care. And, we began to understand the challenges they face.

As anyone can imagine, welcoming a child in need into your family home is a major decision.

Our approach to recruitment would require strategic thinking, and thoughtful tactics.

Solution It Takes a Village, and a Strategic Plan

While our approach to recruitment has evolved over the years, we've applied these steadfast, foundational strategies.

Utilize existing Foster Parents as Recruiters, through personal testimonials and peer-to-peer support. Understand their needs for support, information and development, then use findings to support ongoing engagement activities.
Harness the Power of Real-Life Storytelling, with messages sure to resonate with potential recruits, encourage emotional responses, and motivate action.
Apply Careful and Strategic Marketing Targeting, to ensure that available resources maximize reach, and more importantly, efficiency.
Leverage all Media Platforms, while digital marketing provides for targeting efficiency and engagement, don't neglect traditional media and its capacity to broaden awareness.
Recruitment is 'Always On', there is an ongoing need to attract new foster families, as the fostering ecosystem is an ever evolving, ever changing landscape.

We took this foundation to heart in a recent campaign, with the working title, 'Village Wings'.

Why Village Wings? Well, it takes a village to raise a child, and sometimes we will take a child under our wing.

We crafted stories of foster challenges and rewards, parents and kids.

Stories were told in world without borders, judgments, bias. Rooted firmly in a creative playground of caring, love and respect.

With this creative platform established, we settled on a visual presentation technique reminiscent of felt crafting and stop animation, in a world populated with various birds as our characters, with species reflecting family associations.

We discussed important topics with storybook simplicity, expressed by an appealing cast, friendly to kids and prospective foster parents alike.

The platform included video, radio and print creative, placed, promoted and delivered on social media, radio, television and direct mail.

Click the portfolio items below for more.

Result Meeting Targets, Growing the Community

Bringing new families into the fold has been an important, ongoing and fulfilling challenge.

We've been able to help the Saskatchewan Foster Families Association meet their recruitment goals and enhance their engagement activities through events and ongoing foster parent training.

Often when we talk about marketing, sales is the focus. Don't get us wrong, we love helping clients sell their widgets.

But helping find to families, who step forward and help other families, is truly rewarding.

If you've ever considered fostering a child, click here to learn more....