Businessman Andrew Carnegie once said, “You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.” Integrity’s work in the Westside involves finding those people who are willing to climb and providing them with the resources to aid them on their journey. This mission begins with recruitment. Most of our clients hear about our services via word of mouth, making hands on recruitment our best tool to attract new clients. Director of Intake Services and Recruitment Rosemerry Redd is the mastermind behind our recruitment strategies and says, “By spreading the word to the communities about the free programs that are available to Atlanta residents, we are able to provide life enhancing services and programs to help the residents become self-sufficient, thereby improving the communities that we serve.”
Rosemerry has worked hard to make connections on the Westside with various community organizations. She also has facilitated community partnerships encouraging Westside organizations and government entities to share Integrity’s mission with their constituents. In addition to making these types of connections, the recruitment team attends community events to help spread the word about Integrity’s programs and services.
Intake Specialist and Career Advisor Judy McDaniel usually attends these events and says, “We set up a table with flyers to advertise what we offer. When the clients approach our table we explain our programs and services and register them on site.”
In addition to attending events, Judy and other members of the recruitment team occasionally take to the streets and hand out flyers. Rosemerry has broken down the Westside into specific quadrants and created a strategic plan to hand out flyers repeatedly to the entire Westside. “It’s important for case mangers like Judy to make the one-to-one connections with our participants to build respect and trust. By having that connection, the case managers are able to build strong relationships that allow us to successfully identify barriers and provide wrap-around services to meet the needs of the participants, to set realistic and attainable goals, and provide the necessary tools to empower participants to succeed,” Rosemerry said.
Integrity is now expanding its reach to assist people throughout all of Metro Atlanta which means making changes to its recruitment strategies. Rosemerry has been hard at work creating a more inclusive and far reaching plan to boost recruitment numbers. Even with this expansion, the end goal remains the same: helping to prepare individuals to enter the workforce with the tools they need to be successful.
Judy loves her job and being able to see the impact she has on the lives of the people she recruits and helps through the program. She says, “We train a lot of families; we don’t just train individuals, we train generations. If you can touch generations then you are making a big difference in the community.” Integrity hopes to continue to make a difference in the community both on the Westside and throughtou the entire city of Atlanta.