Creating a welcoming community

The Omaha World-Herald reported on Jan. 5th that Nebraska’s level of “brain drain” outmigration is now one of the worst in the nation, based upon the percentage of the population, and is continuing down a long-term unfavorable trend.

At both the state and local level, it is getting ever more challenging to attract and retain workers. And that competition is not going to ease anytime soon due to significant demographic challenges.

But we can’t just throw in the towel. Instead, it is time to roll up our sleeves and figure out solutions — creative, innovative, long-lasting ideas to address the issues.

Sean Wolfe

For starters, we, as a community, must work together to take advantages of our community’s strengths and make our community an even better place to call home. While this effort will need to be comprehensive and have many parts, one of the key pieces is making our community more welcoming, something each of us can contribute to.

But how do we make our community more welcoming? And who can we be welcoming to?

We may think everyone we see around town has been here for many years. However, we underestimate the numbers of new people who arrive in our community every year.

Right before Christmas, the U.S. Census Bureau released the State-to-County Migration Flows for the five-year period of 2017-2021. Based on their records, Red Willow County had 797 people move here from another county, state, or country; and another 668 people changed residences within the county.

Of the people who moved here during that time, 526 came from other counties in Nebraska, 85 from Kansas, 45 from Oklahoma, 36 from both Colorado and Missouri, with other states making up the remaining 43. An additional 26 moved here from another country.

That is roughly a new person moving to our county every other day. How many of these new people have you met? How well do each of us do at welcoming them into our social circles? What are we doing to help them feel welcome here?

Consider who made you feel welcomed when you were new to a community, whether it was starting at a new school, moving away from home from college, or starting a new job in a brand-new town. What made you feel like you belonged? Who reached out to you to make you feel welcomed? How did the community welcome you? Use those experiences to welcome others to our community.

If we want to make our community a place where young people and families want to live, let’s start with ourselves to create a community we want to belong to and place where we feel welcome. And then we take the next step and help others feel like they belong and that they are welcomed.

As it is the season of reflection and New Year’s resolutions, consider reaching out to someone who is new to our community, whether it is at your workplace, in your neighborhood, or at your church. Welcoming gestures, something as simple as taking them out for coffee or inviting them to an exercise class, can go a long way in making our community a more welcoming place for people new to our community.

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— Sean Wolfe is the newest member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund Advisory Committee, as well as the Chief Financial Officer at Community Hospital in McCook, and brings a passion for not only numbers and finances but also people and the community.