Press Release
Jay Knobbe doesn’t believe in brain drain anymore.
The State Farm insurance agent in Norfolk scoffs when he hears that talented Northeast Nebraskans don’t come back to the area.
Knobbe knows that successful graduates of area high schools are often willing to come back to their hometown, they just haven’t been asked.
In October 2004, Knobbe and three others began the Norfolk Area Recruiters, an organization dedicated to bringing graduates from area high schools back into the community.
Knobbe said he felt the Norfolk area was losing many of its talented young people to bigger cities and believed that many successful graduates would be willing to return to the area—the idea had just never crossed their minds.
The group uses a variety of approaches to catch the eyes of successful Norfolk and area natives.
“We send direct mail to the 27- and 34-year-olds from the area. The mailings direct them to the community Web site,” Knobbe said.
The Web site contains information about employers and homes in the area, as well as a listing of area businesses, restaurants and shops to give interested readers a feel for the community.
Although the mailings only reach a certain age range, Knobbe stressed that the Norfolk Area Recruiters don’t have specific demographics in mind when recruiting.
“Twenty-seven- to 34-year-olds isn’t the target,” he said. “We would target everybody if the community would financially support the group. We would like to recruit 20- to 80-year-olds.”
Currently, the group is working to gain more community involvement, a step that is key in making the Norfolk area appealing for those who have left.
Knobbe has been encouraging businesses to take advantage of the job listings section of the site—a way for employers to publicize their openings, free of charge. He sees it as a way for businesses to seek out new talent and for prospective recruits to see the opportunities the Norfolk area has to offer.
He also urges parents of successful graduates to communicate with the Norfolk Area Recruiters about their children.
“Parents don’t want to recruit their kids because they’re afraid they’ll fail,” Knobbe said. “They want someone else to talk their kids into coming back into Northeast Nebraska, and we can do that.”
While many people see leaving the area and moving to a bigger city as a success, Knobbe said this isn’t necessarily the case.
“If someone graduates from Wayne or UNL and moves to Omaha and is making $80,000 a year, we say, ‘That person made it. They’re successful,’ but are they really successful if they are miserable? We want them to know they can do the same things here in a smaller community closer to home and closer to their family,” Knobbe said. “A lot of people you talk to them, and they think, ‘Wow, someone wants me back.’”
Members of the Norfolk Area Recruiters officially have brought about 12 families back to Norfolk. Knobbe said those are the families that have been “reported,” but others may have come back without notifying the organization.
One of the recruits is Angela Denkinger, a chiropractic physician originally from Battle Creek.
After Denkinger completed her chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University in Bloomington, Minn., she practiced for two years in the Twin Cities before she decided to move home and closer to family.
When Denkinger expressed interest in returning to the Norfolk area to start her own practice, her father put her in touch with the Norfolk Area Recruiters. She communicated with the group via phone and e-mail for nearly a year before moving back to the area, and Denkinger said the organization was tremendously helpful to her return to Northeast Nebraska.
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
