Press Release
The military recruits soldiers, colleges court blue-chip athletes and corporate head hunters hunt down CEO candidates.
If you graduated from high school in Norfolk, then moved on, expect to hear from a new kind of recruiter.
The message of Norfolk Area Recruiters: “We want you back.”
The incentive: lower taxes, shorter commutes, good schools and a potential salary that will buy more in Northeast Nebraska than it could in a big city.
“We wanted to get out and let people know it was a good place to live,” said Jay Knobbe, a Norfolk insurance agent who started the group. “We felt nobody was telling that to anybody.”
Traditionally, smaller cities like Norfolk, population 24,000, have concentrated on attracting businesses and factories to drive economic development and population growth. Others might market their city to people who’ve never seen it.
The new program in Norfolk doesn’t compete with traditional economic development efforts but focuses on recruiting individuals who already know the area because they once called it home.
Recruiters have assembled contact information for more than 5,000 alumni from public and Catholic high schools in Norfolk, Madison, Battle Creek, Stanton and Pierce. The group will soon launch a direct mail campaign that it hopes will appeal to those who feel an affinity for Northeast Nebraska, but thought it financially impossible to return.
“I think it's fairly clever and it's worth doing,” said Randy Cantrell, community development specialist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Rural Initiative. “You can make a significant difference, especially if the people you’re able to attract have specialized job skills.”
Even before the mailing, however, the group made contacts that helped four families return to the area, Knobbe said. And they’re working with three other families who are strongly considering a return.
And while Norfolk Area Recruiters hope to attract as many returning graduates as they can, their goal is a modest eight families per year.
“We promote the lifestyle, the economic opportunities, the family values, the recreation,” Knobbe said. “We need to promote the area to get them to come back.”
Knobbe, 33, married and a father of two, said he thought of the approach about a year ago as a community project. Knowing he would need help to get the idea off the ground, he invited some young professionals to lunch without telling them why.
Five or six attended, probably thinking they were about to hear a pitch to buy life insurance. Instead, Knobbe asked if they would be willing work for the betterment of Norfolk and the surrounding region.
They bought in and started recruiting more help, mostly from younger people in the local workforce. Nearly a year later, the group has 55 volunteers, many of whom serve on committees that support the overall effort.
Jill Kruger is development director for Norfolk Catholic Schools and a volunteer who has been with the recruiters’ group from the beginning. It’s exciting to help tackle a problem that stymies many rural areas and small cities.
“I see on a continuous basis alumni who’ve left,” she said. “They don’t feel it’s an option to return. They feel there are no jobs here comparable to what they can get in other states and I want to dispel that. If they want to come home, I want to help them come home.”
And in many cases, former residents want to come back. They’ve been off to college, explored other places and some, as they start families, see their hometowns in a new light. Good schools, less traffic, a lower cost of living and more intimate atmosphere appeal to some. Others simply want to get closer to family.
Small-town leaders sometimes underestimate the desire of young people to come back, said Craig Schroeder, senior associate for the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, a division of the Nebraska Community Foundation. In Holt County, for example, a recent survey of high school students found that nearly seven out of 10 said they would like to one day return. And about half said they wanted to own their own business.
Whatever the reasons, attempting to attract young adults can be well worth a community’s effort, Schroeder said. He knew of similar high school alumni recruitment efforts in Holdrege and north-central Nebraska around Bassett.
Case studies show returning young adults often bring with them a spouse and children. They also tend to have good educations and a variety of experiences that translate into fresh ideas when they return.
While bringing back such residents helps a city like Norfolk, which experienced modest population growth since 1990, it can be absolutely crucial for communities with smaller populations. In small towns, the numbers of returnees don’t have to be high to have a positive effect.
“Those smaller, rural communities really need to work on this,” Schroeder said. “It's a real opportunity now because young people are saying they want to come back to their home communities.”
If the approach works in Norfolk and its surrounding towns, it will be because it’s well-organized and has the help of volunteers, Knobbe said. The volunteers serve on teams that do the work — everything from writing letters and updating addresses, to fund-raising and seeking partnerships with political leaders. They’ve twice met with Gov. Dave Heineman and area state senators and will meet soon with Rep. Tom Osborne, R-3rd District. The group is also working with UNL and Northeast Community College in Norfolk.
One of the teams has reached out to major employers in Norfolk and the region, which has led to job postings on the Norfolk Area Recruiters Web site. Recruiters work to match resumes with job openings.
In other cases, they try to make the entrepreneurial-minded aware of local opportunities. For example, they could help set up an apprenticeship between those interested in owning their own business and a retiring small business owner.
The effort has gained support from government and businesses in Norfolk and Madison. The group’s fund-raising success allowed it to recently hire an executive director, who is working from an office donated by the Bank of Madison.
“We know were going to be successful,” said Kruger, one of the volunteers. “We know we’re going to benefit the economy of Northeast Nebraska by doing this.”
- Story Courtesy of the Lincoln Journal-Star
