Featured Resource
On Target with a Tricky Target Audience
It’s Your Money appeals to a “difficult to get in the door” target audience of young adults ages 15-29. In fact, this audience is comprised of at least four distinct groups: teenagers; young adults in the workforce; young adults beginning post-secondary education; and young parents. Library staff and their partners enthusiastically took on the challenge. Their active approach meant they had to seek out younger presenters, create more specific programming opportunities, take the programs out of the library to the audience’s preferred location, and deliver more hands-on style workshops.
Leveraging Library Connections
Fun and factual public service announcements, original radio shows programming and participatory programs are some of the outreach strategies employed by It’s Your Money. Its Your Money: Meet Toni, for example is a video about getting that first paycheck and learning how to manage wants and needs. A program on how to make a duct tape wallet got rave reviews that led to a discussion about free and unbiased financial information at the library (see It’s Your Money: Meet Hands).
United Way and the library worked together to launch a weekly segment on community radio station WFHB, called The Ins and Outs of Money to correlate with topics addressed during public seminars. Segments focused on budgeting, saving, compound interest, taxes, financing college, establishing good credit, transitioning to financial independence and other topics suitable for young adult audiences.
It’s Your Money is built on established marketing partnerships with the mayor’s office, Monroe County United Way, Indiana Secretary of State’s Office and area nonprofit organizations. Library staff noted, “We have found that our partnerships and face-to-face communications spread the word better than electronic means, but the best marketing strategies use all of these. We kept our Advisory Committee in the loop about events and resources and our partners now count on the library as a place to send their clients. They are great about giving us tips on how workshops should be conducted and who might be good to lead them, but they truly shine when it comes to getting the word out.”
Lessons Learned
• Partnerships often evolve over the course of the grant project. It is important to be flexible and consider adding partners who may not have been included in the original plan.
• Partners have learned that the library is a great place to set up their own financial literacy workshops. Habitat for Humanity, Ivy Tech Community College, and Hoosier Hills Career Center are a few of the agencies that have joined forces with the Monroe County Public Library. These partners are able to 1) bring clients to the library for programs 2) provide resources drawn from the library’s collections for their clients, and 3) invite It’s Your Money to their organizations.
