I recently read an interesting article published by the Rural Futures Lab written by Warren Vaughan, a young rural community leader in southwestern Montana. The message he conveyed was from his personal experience of being the "youngest person in the room" and his concern that young people are not getting involved in their communities and the leadership of our rural organizations is aging rapidly.
This article brings back a lot of memories from when I moved back to my hometown in my mid-twenties and was the youngest person in the room. I went home at the end of the 80's Ag Crisis, so the decline of young people in rural communities was very evident. My experience in going home is also what led me into the arena of youth engagement and helping communities be more successful at attracting more young people to stay or return to their hometowns.
Warren mentions that young families are busy these days, but 
young families have always been busy and both parents have always worked. I think young adults are engaged socially today, perhaps more than in the past, but they do much of it in "communities of interest" on the web on blogs, posting on Facebook, etc. These individual decisions to spend the evening alone with a laptop or tablet with a nice cup of coffee result in a big collective decline in local community involvement. This is not the only factor certainly, but I think it is just one more thing in a long line of "inventions" that have led to eroding community involvement.
The same thing happened when radio, TV and ultimately central air became common in American homes. We used to sit on the front porch talking with neighbors to escape the heat of the house in the summer months. We used to invite neighbors over for pie and coffee just to chat while the kids played together. Now we go out for coffee or to dinner, leaving the kids at home with a babysitter, and the front porch was replaced by a two-car garage long ago.
To illustrate this idea, I have a good friend from college who is a very enterprising bicycle shop owner today. A few years ago he decided to build an old-fashioned three-wheel ice cream bike. His idea was to ride around the streets, ringing his bell and selling ice cream for fun with the bonus of a little exercise. The first time he rode around one beautiful Saturday evening, it became very apparent to him that everyone was inside watching television and could not hear his bell over the background noise and double pain windows. After a few more attempts of riding around, and several warmed ice cream bars later, he put the bike away and now only uses it in the summer holiday celebrations when people are out and about.
This story illustrates why young adult social groups are so vital! Young adults are moving to rural communities just for that - a community, and they become discouraged when they find out these same social norms impact small towns too. The good news is young professional groups are breaking the mold and making community engagement a top priority again and they are having fun doing it!
On March 27th at Noon Central, Nicole Sedlacek, Economic Development Director for Holt County, NE will share five great ideas for successfully involving young adults based upon a 
decade of work and great success in attracting young families back home and getting them engaged as active citizens and leaders.This webinar is free to the first 50 people who register, so click here now to get signed up! This is an opportunity to learn from someone who has been successful and is willing to share her best ideas. Don't miss it!
