Quote Originally Posted by Tuckervill View Post
Those commercials were targeted towards, and portrayed, older women with older children.

Does your program actually use that term, "displaced homemaker"? I would find that creepy. Our local CC has programs for people who need those things, but they're not targeted at any particular segment or situation. They're available for whomever needs them.

Karen
Could be the demographics of your area that determined the target of the ads. I don't know if our program uses the term "displaced homemaker" externally or not--I know we DO use it internally, but the advertising materials I think just use the name of the actual program. And I'd be very surprised if your local community college was the only CC in America not targeting programs at particular population segments. Most funding that's available through federal, state and private grants is designed for particular populations, so we have programs for high school dropouts, veterans returning from abroad, women and minorities in engineering, low income residents, mid-life career changers, non-native English speakers, people with disabilities, etc. Of COURSE the services are available to whoever needs them, but the high-need populations are targeted with special programs and funding, and the programs are focused on the particular needs of that particular population, so the mid-life career changers probably won't need help on interviewing and professional skills but may need help on study skills, and the high school dropouts are going to need GED preparation along with study skills and academic mentoring and career counseling. And women who have been out of the workforce for many years or never in the workforce to begin with have particular issues and problems that, for example, veterans don't have (and the veterans have issues that NO other population has!). In theory each individual might be able to go seek out the services that only she or he needs, but it's a lot easier for the students to have someone on staff suggest and guide them through the process so they don't miss something important.

Sarah