Champions for Nature: Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Strategy

When working to recruit and retain participants of all ages, education levels, and low levels of STEM background in Citizen Science (CS) projects a methodological approach should be adopted. Historical data of first NSF funded... [ view full abstract ]

When working to recruit and retain participants of all ages, education levels, and low levels of STEM background in Citizen Science (CS) projects a methodological approach should be adopted. Historical data of first NSF funded awarded to Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (CTPR) for Citizen Science project showed bias towards participants from metro areas and from Universities of Puerto Rico. Therefore, for the second Citizen Science project we developed detailed specific strategies of recruitment and retention within 4 target underrepresented, underserved, municipalities to increase inclusion and foster greater diversity. The communication and marketing strategy to recruit participants to pass through contributory, collaborative, co-created phases of Informal Science Education (ISE) included catchy designs, simple language about relevant community environmental issues through multi media. While these strategies were successful in 80% recruitment to all ecological research projects for the contributory phase, they were unsuccessful in recruiting majority of participants from 4 municipalities or participants willing to commit to the collaborative and co-created phases. During the process of reflection with staff and evaluators it was concluded that using virtual media was ineffective in the target municipalities and modifications were required to increase participants from 4 municipalities. The adaptive strategies employed included 1) paper flyers to be distributed in frequently visited areas within municipality such as shopping malls, stores, libraries, municipality buildings 2) for retention, volunteer leaders were recruited to give follow up telephone calls to one time participant 3) open house for family members of repeat participants to encourage participation and return to projects. CTPR recommends a marketing study be carried out at the beginning of the project and that reflection, evaluation and adaptation be a critical part of the recruitment and retention plan of the Citizen Science project.