Helping community colleges connect to
and engage adult learners
What is Reset?
A strategic initiative for community colleges to re-envision
how to connect, engage, and restructure for adult learners
From strategic branding to systems change
Why It’s Needed
Moving beyond accessibility and affordability.
Adult learners need to understand how you, their local community college, are directly relevant to them.
They need to:
- Understand who your institution is in a way that they can connect to.
- Be able to see themselves on your campus, in your classrooms, and as a part of your community.
- Know that you understand their needs, priorities, and context and that you are structured to help them meet their goals.
Reset to Connect:
CONNECT TO AND ENGAGE ADULT LEARNERS.
Refine your strategic brand for adult learners through your:
Institutional identity
Messaging, website, social media, materials
Physical environment and sense of place
User-centered digital infrastructure
Institutional culture
Reset to Engage:
BECOME A WELCOMING PLACE WHERE ADULT LEARNERS FEEL LIKE THEY FIT.
Infuse a consistent brand identity for adult learners across all areas of the institution, aligned to strategic priorities, through:
Coordinated messaging across campus departments
Tools and talking points for faculty and staff
Learner stories and outcomes
Brand aligned campus and community events
Reset to Support:
ALIGN SERVICES, OFFERINGS, and STRUCTURES FOR ADULTS.
Show adults that you understand their needs and priorities and are able to support them. Do this by:
Designing services and processes optimized to adult learners’ goals
Fostering a welcoming, connected
institutional cultureIdentify existing barriers and remove them
Ensure digital, physical, and academic
related processes are easy to navigate
We are a strategic partner to help community colleges become a place for adult learners. We guide you through a process using our Reset framework – our proven approach to help institutions.
Phase 1: Institutional Identity – Hone in on who you are to your community and what is needed for prospective adult learners to see themselves at your institution.
Phase 2: Awareness and Engagement – Make your institutional identity visible across your campus and to your regional community. Develop and implement a plan to engage current and prospective adult learners and leverage your institutional identity to grow enrollment.
Phase 3: Restructure for Adults – Optimize and expand your services, programatic offerings, and systems to meet adults where they are at.
Phase 4: Iterate and Sustain: Take the work to the next level. Infuse efforts into policies, practies, culture, strategic priorities, facility plans, and your overall way of being.
Recent Work
RURAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADULT LEARNER ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVE
Lumina Foundation initiative, in partnership with CollegeAPP
StrategyForward is leading a cohort of rural community colleges in reimagining how they connect to and engage adult learners through a strategic brand journey process over two years.
BUILDING BRANDS STATE COHORT
Lumina Foundation initiative, in partnership with SOVA
StrategyForward is supporting 20+ institutions and three states in advancing adult learner engagement through strategic branding and user-centered digital design. Providing coaching, strategic guidance, and capacity-building.
MILLION DOLLAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE CHALLENGE: ANALYSIS & EVALUATION
Lumina Foundation initiative
StrategyForward analyzed hundreds of institutional applications to the Million Dollar Community College Challenge, conducted an evaluation of participants, and enabled cohort engagement.
Results We’re Seeing
INCREASE IN ENROLLMENT
- Ex: Participating college saw a 25% increase in enrollment over 4 years
INCREASE IN INSTITUTIONAL PRIDE
- Ex: Participating college saw faculty and staff giving increase for the first time in a long time
- Ex: Participating college saw students embracing the institutional identity in ways never before seen and connecting with each as a student community using this shared identity to support a fellow student.
DEEPER CONNECTIONS TO EXTERNAL COMMUNITIES
- Ex: From best kept secret to the pride of the county
INCREASE IN MARKETING BUDGETS WITH FOCUSED INTENT
- Ex: Participating college grew its marketing budget from $5k to $50k as part of a strategic priority to connect and engage adult learners
This project has been the blueprint of how to do this work. We understand what is needed, have the confidence of how to achieve it, and can show the results to get the support we need.
—
Community college director of marketing
In many communities, community colleges are still the best-kept secret for achieving economic progress. We're grateful to partner with StrategyForward to equip colleges to better connect with potential adult students.
—
Mary Laphen Pope, Strategy Officer, Lumina Foundation
StrategyForward is an amazing and insightful institutional strategy setter for direct recruitment of the adults who have intent to enroll.
—
Jack MacKenzie, president, CollegeAPP
This project has been the blueprint of how to do this work. We understand what is needed, have the confidence of how to achieve it, and can show the results to get the support we need.
—
Community college director of marketing
