Strategies to Recruit Alumni and Young Families to Your Community

Beginning in March, the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Heartland Center for Leadership Development will co-host a three-part webinar series to help rural leaders address youth out-migration through attracting alumni and young familes.  This webinar series will incoporate the extensive experience of both organizations in working with young people and communty leaders to revitalize rural communities.  It also builds upon input gathered from over 30,000 young people across rural America about what motivates them to want to return to rural communties.  If you would like a taste of this series, we invite you to click on this link to view a free webinar recording conducted by both Centers in December, 2011.

In three one-hour sessions, co-hosts Milan Wall of the Heartland Center and Craig Schroeder of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship will guide you through the process of identifying your target audience in relation to your community's strongest assets, crafting a compelling message and brand to attract new residents and building a game plan for recruiting alumni and young families to your community.  Upon completion of this series, you will have the knowledge and tools needed to move forward with implementing your action plan.

• What returnees and newcomers are seeking
• How to analyze your communty's strongest assets
• Segmenting your target audiences key elements
• Learning to tie strategic assets to priority targets

• The 4 P's of community branding
• What branding is and isn't
• What great branding looks and feels like
• How a community's image communicates to newcomers

• Connecting with newcomers and returnees
• The medium is (still) the message
• How to seal the deal
• Why people stay...or leave

 



The Heartland Center has a 25-year history in community development, and we are known for our interactive workshop facilitation, our annual institutes, strategic planning, town hall meetings and now our webinars.  Previous webinars have focused on strengthening local leadership, appreciative inquiry and strategies for active economic development.  The Heartland Center has offices in Nebraska and Texas.  Its programs reach hundreds of communties annually in the U.S., Canada and internationally.

 

The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship is the focal point for energizing communities where entrepreneurs can flourish.  Created in 2001 with founding support from the Kauffman Foundation and the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), the center is located jointly in Nebraska, North Carolina and Missouri.  The center has developed a knowledge base of effective practices shared through training and strategic engagement across rural America.

 

If you register before Feburary 29, 2012, the cost for this series is $169.  After that date, the cost will be $189, so register today by clicking on the link below.  If you have questions about these webinars, please contact Craig Schroeder at craig@e2mail.org.