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Don’t Ask, Don’t Care
September 9th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
Have you asked a young person lately what they think of their community or what they’d like to change to make it a more attractive place for young people to live?
If you haven’t, you are not alone. According to a study of young people in rural northeast Nebraska, only 29% of the 1,833 students in the study responded that they had been asked questions of this nature.
That begs the question: if we don’t ask, does it mean we don’t care?
I don’t think so. It’s my observation that rural residents care deeply about the future of their communities and recognize how important young people are to that future. The problem is that we don’t know any better.
But not knowing is not an excuse!
That’s why I’ve been waiting impatiently to read Hollowing out the Middle, ever since I learned about it back in April. The authors studied the “brain drain” issue in a rural town in Northeast Iowa, and concluded that rural residents play a significant role in driving young people away.
The book, which was recently released, should arrive on my doorstep by Friday. (Thank you Amazon.) Even though I’m sure it will offer insights into how we can better retain our young people, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that one of the first steps is to show young people that we care about them. We may think that young people already know this, but when we don’t ask questions like “what do you want this place to be like?” they tend to forget.
It may be a few weeks before I’m able to finish Hollowing out the Middle, and I’ll share my insights with you here. What I haven’t shared with you yet, however, is that there’s more to the story about Nebraska’s youth.
The Rest of the Story
What’s remarkable about the Nebraska youth study is that despite not being asked about the future of their rural communities, most still want to return. According to the Nebraska Community Foundation (who helped fund the study along with The Connie Fund), 51% of those surveyed could see themselves living in the area in the future if career opportunities are available. And only 12% felt that their rural community was too small. (See page 6-7 of the Summer 2009 issue of the Nebraska Community Foundation’s newsletter).
That news leaves me wondering what the results would be if we started asking young people what they want their communities to be like, and then made them a part of the effort to achieve it.
See also: Omaha World Herald article titled “Neb. kids like hometowns.”
Tags: Gen Y, hollowing out the middle, Iowa, Nebraska, people attraction strategy
Posted in Community Development, Gen Y, In the News, Rural, Youth | Comments (
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October 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
[...] across reimaginerural.com today and thought I’d share one of the more thought-provoking posts. According to a study of young people in rural northeast Nebraska, only 29% of the 1,833 students [...]