Youth Opportunities

Youth Opportunities trainers were individually calling or texting students for any number of reasons. Phone calls take time, and are less likely to be answered, resulting in the need to make more calls, and trainers were using personal mobile phones to send text messages to students regarding program logistics.

Nina Pullen, Youth Opportunities Training and Program Administrator said that the main issues regarding this practice were in relation to communication effectiveness and efficiency. “Most trainers have a workload of about three programs – with each program containing about 18 students. The process of sending an individual SMS from a personal phone was very time consuming, therefore trainers would only send the most important information to a student.”

Youth Opportunities evaluated its communication workflow and identified the need for an integrated bulk-SMS solution within its CRM. They chose to embed the messaging tool into the existing system so that trainers could send group messages, log replies against student records, and follow up automatically. They also planned for SMS use not only for logistics (venue/time changes) but for student engagement (weekly challenges, follow-ups, alumni event notices).

By using SMS4Act! within Act!, Youth Opportunities can now quickly and easily send texts to one or more contacts directly from within Act!. The message is saved against the contact along with any replies. Nina said, “When we first heard of SMS4Act! from our Act Today account manager, we were immediately interested. SMS4Act! allows us to contact as many students as we need to without messaging costs or time being an obstacle.”

They now use SMS for a wide range of messaging to students. “The number one use of SMS for our organisation is for any logistics regarding the delivery of the Personal Leadership Program. This includes reminders to students to bring required forms, or to inform students of a change to the time, day or venue of a session,” said Nina.

SMS is also used as a follow up if a student has missed a session or needs extra guidance. When students miss any content, or need help understanding a concept, they have the ability to complete extra bookwork. “SMS is very effective in outlining which exercises a student can complete in their workbook. Because the student has the information recorded on their mobile, they can access it often and refer back to it whenever they need to,” said Nina.

Students are set weekly challenges to practice what they have learned each week in the training room. Trainers then send an SMS with an encouraging message to the students reminding them to step out of their comfort zone by completing these challenges. After completing the Personal Leadership Program, students are contacted regularly by the trainers to follow up on program concepts and deliver affirmations of future success.

Youth Opportunities has partnered with community members and is able to utilise these connections to host events such as Army Day, Career Expos, and recruitment opportunities that allow hundreds of past graduates to further their career development. “SMS4Act! allows our organisation to keep past graduates up to date with these exciting events,” said Nina.

Youth Opportunities uses SMS because they know that it is the most effective way to contact students. “We work with Year 10 students and this means that text messaging is the number one preferred communication method!” said Nina. Generation Z use text messaging as a primary method of communicating and tend to respond better and faster to a text message than any other form of communication.

“SMS4Act! allows trainers to meet the communication needs of our students and it makes the process easy and cost-effective. The addition of SMS4Act! has led to time savings of hundreds of hours. Our trainers are now able to send any length of message to an individual or an entire group of students – and to multiple programs, quickly and easily with SMS4Act!”