Abstract
For the past 15 years, it has been the stated objective of the different governments in Denmark to increase volunteerism in the Danish society. The former government (2011-2015) made several initiatives to make it easier for individuals to participate in voluntary work. A specific initiative seeks to increase collaboration and partnerships between local authorities and organizations using voluntary work.
In 2014, Danish Red Cross Youth (RCY) initiated such a partnership with TrygFonden. So far this partnership has resulted in a national program called Frem i lyset (Into the light) aiming to strengthen small local communities through networking activities for the target group of this program - vulnerable children and young people.
Frem i lyset has established two mentoring programs; Apollo and Orion. The objective of the programs is to help and support vulnerable children and young people in graduating upper secondary education, getting after school jobs or volunteer for community work and thus become actively contributing citizens. Apollo and Orion need steady adult male mentors with life and work experience. Unfortunately statistics show that adult men are less prone to volunteer as mentors, which in turn propose a risk to the success of these programs.
This thesis explores how RCY can improve its recruitment practice in order to recruit adult men as a specific target group for the Apollo and Orion projects. The thesis identifies the field ‘adult men in mentoring programs’ and explores to which effect the marketing tool social marketing is useful for improving RCY’s recruitment strategies, specifically with respect to increasing recruitment in the target group. The field will be established through a literature survey and an assessment of the value of social marketing as a recruitment tool.
Through the literature survey the thesis concludes that adult men have much needed skills for mentoring projects and that a continuing focus on recruitment strategies for this specific target group is crucial to the success of programs such as Apollo and Orion. The thesis also concludes that recruitment of adult men must be done preferably by directly asking individuals to participate in a program. This could be done through incitement by peers at work, in a sports club or another leisure activity, or by women in their circle of acquaintances encouraging them to participate. The men need to be informed that mentoring programs exist; of how they work and that their skills and engagement in the programs are something special and much needed.
The rhetoric used in recruiting adult men must be characterized by factual and result oriented language. It must raise awareness on the field of mentoring, and seek to eliminate whatever uncertainties the target group may have to participating and donating their time to voluntary work as mentors.