Louisa Development Group Column

Angie Sanders, Executive Director

Week of February 25, 2008

A big push by the State of Iowa and many Young Professional groups recently is to keep young people in the state, in our communities after they finish high school or college. See the new Generation Iowa website aimed at 18-35 year olds at www.generationiowa.com.

Louisa County, as you may or may not know, actually has a fairly diverse population among the age groups – but we’re not exactly keeping our youth in town either.

Research from consulting firm Boston Consulting Group, and a study by the Utah

Foundation, identified five key factors that drive the decision of where Generation Iowa lives

and works:

1. High paying job and low cost of living

2. A place compatible with their skill set and growth of those skills

3. Quality of life, vitality, uniqueness and diversity of community

4. Geography and ease of travel

5. Career advancement and leadership

Still, many young people and adults realize that technology has changed the playing field when it comes to moving. Many people can live in the place they want (hopefully Louisa County!) and work from home for their business.

Just as big a challenge as finding solutions to those key factors, is marketing the strengths that exist here that young people can appreciate. And if some of those factors already exist here (which I know some do), marketing them too!

Some of the strengths we have are: cost of living, importance of family values, high speed internet access and being able to travel 10 miles in 10 or so minutes. Those are true quality of life factors that people think about every day – especially when they’re planning on moving.

But are we marketing those to our youth? To everyone in general?

The Generation Iowa report also talks about recruiting and retaining youth. One strategy outlined in both of those is to have an internship and/or mentor program. The students could be made available at one of the manufacturing plants, small businesses or even LDG.

Internship programs allow students to gain valuable work experience and allow the employer to evaluate the intern as a potential future employee. Programs can be formal or informal. Successful internship programs allow the interns a “sneak peak” of all aspects of the company. Use this to your advantage and offer job shadowing, mentoring or even leadership training as part of the program. The best interns will also be the best candidates for full time employment. Check with your local high school or one of the nearby community colleges too!

In fact, LDG currently has a high school intern for an hour a week. Due to the executive director’s hectic schedule and all the bad weather as of late, we haven’t gotten to work with her as much as we’d like. But she is great. And we would love to have more in the summer for a few more hours a week – both to help us out and for us to serve in a leadership role for them too.

If you are a high school or college student, or know someone who might be interested, contact LDG at 319-527-5182 or ldg@louisacomm.net to see if we can fit your intern needs or find an organization that can.

Community and economic development is not just about recruiting factories. It’s about enhancing and marketing the place we call home so that Louisa County continues to thrive for generations to come.