Partnering with young people to create the town they want to be part of
One of your most-requested topics
You chose retaining our youth as your #1 issue on the Survey of Rural Challenges 2015, and #2 in 2017. Clearly, you’re not alone in this.
“We have already identified that to survive, we will need entrepreneurial millennials who want to be rural by choice,” one small town person told us. “The hard part is making our town of 1900 attractive enough for them to even consider us.”
Find out which needs rank highest with young people in your town
Instead of making lists of “must have” items that are supposed to work in every small town to attract or retain young people, we feel it’s smarter to be open to working with your young people to create the town they want together. So our action steps focus on ways to better connect young people to your community, from school age through college age through young families.
In short, become an Idea Friendly town. When you do, you and the young people will be partners on figuring out exactly what your town needs and then creating it together.