Project Overview

St. Mary’s Child Center provides high-quality, outcomes-based early learning experiences to some of Indianapolis’ most vulnerable children and families. What started 60 years ago as a one-room classroom in the basement of a church is today a multi-site operation serving more than 200 children through its Reggio-inspired curriculum. Like many child care centers, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred St. Mary’s to rethink its enrollment strategy in order to refill its classrooms and help expand the reach and impact of its services. To do this, St. Mary’s sought the expertise and outside perspective of Mapt Solutions.

Our Approach

To help develop the most effective and differentiated enrollment strategy for St. Mary’s, Mapt conducted a landscape review of the early childhood education space and an analysis of St. Mary’s previous enrollment efforts. Mapt then developed a comprehensive enrollment strategy and campaign to not only rebuild enrollment but to serve as an annual playbook for St. Mary’s future enrollment efforts. Alongside this effort, Mapt helped develop a strategic plan for St. Mary’s to expand its Reggio-inspired professional development services statewide.

Impact

The enrollment campaign, “This is the Place,” included an enrollment microsite, digital engagement ads, lead generation strategy and public relations efforts, and was a major success for St. Mary’s. Not only did the center refill its classrooms, but there was so much demand generated that the center had to create a waitlist.