MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Keeping young, talented people in West Virginia has been a challenge for years, but one Morgantown-based organization wants to confront that challenge head on.
“It’s no secret that young people are leaving the state in droves,” Generation Morgantown Co-Chair Marissa Russell said Monday on Morgantown AM. “We lose around 44 people each day here in West Virginia. We already know that a significant population of talented young professionals and leaders are already here. We see it as imperative to work to encourage them to stay.”
Generation Morgantown is an entity established by the Morgantown-area Chamber of Commerce to entice young professionals to stay in West Virginia.
“We work to support young folks in their professional endeavors to help them build a local, professional network, to help them get engaged in community service, and just make friends here in town,” Russell said. “We think that, sort of taken together, all of these factors contribute to how invested one feels in their community. And when folks are invested and needed locally, we think they are more likely to stay.”
The organization facilitates non-profit volunteer work, professional meet and greets, and recreational activity in the hope that the participants will feel a more vested interest where they live.
“We work to encourage folks to get involved locally in community service and serve on local boards and committees to strengthen their communities and just to overall take ownership in their community and get to work on trying to make it a place where young people and families want to live, work, and play,” Russell said.
Often called a “brain drain,” Russell said that organizations like this can help young people make the kind of connections that create a true community.
“Outside of our events, these folks have connected and are helping each other in ways that we didn’t necessarily facilitate, but sort of has happened naturally,” Russell said. “You know, on holidays when folks can’t make the long trip home, they are there for one another.”
Generation Morgantown will host Joggers & Lagers Monday evening, which consists of a light four-mile jog in South Park and ends with a drink at Gene’s Beer Garden.