WEST LEBANON — Upper Valley organizations continue to find creative and collaborative solutions to one of the region’s major barriers to attracting and retaining out-of-state professionals: the region’s limited offerings in the way of entertainment and socializing.
“Our region is wonderful but it can be a difficult place to feel like you belong [or] to meet people, particularly if you’re single,” said Tracy Hutchins, director of the Upper Valley Business Alliance. “[And] if you are someone who comes from a more metropolitan region, you are used to having everything within a small or compact radius, whereas here you may have to drive 30 minutes or more to find something you enjoy.”
The challenge for young or single professionals to acclimate to the rural Upper Valley creates another workforce obstacle for the region’s employers, particularly major institutions or companies like Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Health and Hypertherm, which are struggling to find a sufficient number of workers and rely heavily on hiring employees from outside the state to fill their labor needs.
Many young or single professionals who move to the Upper Valley for employment wind up leaving within three years, attributing their departure to a lack of things to do, a difficulty meeting people with similar backgrounds or finding people to date, according to Hutchins.
“If you’ve grown up here, you have those organic ties (to this area), Hutchins said. “You may have family or you still have friends from your school days. But if you are new to this area, it can be somewhat isolating.”
Julius Turner, who relocated from Texas to Lebanon in 2020 to work at the West Lebanon pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk, said he enjoys the area’s natural, scenic beauty, as well as the quieter and slower pace of life. But the region’s population sparseness and lack of cultural diversity can also mean fewer options for consumers.
“The lack of variety and quantity in restaurants, for one,” Turner said. “There just aren’t many choices when it comes to different types of cuisine.”
Turner, who is African American, also said that the region’s lack of racial or ethnic diversity can feel isolating to a person of color.
“When you don’t have a large number of minorities in your area, it can be hard to create a community where a person can feel comfortable,” Turner said.
The need to make the Upper Valley a more welcoming and social destination for singles and young professionals is well known to the Upper Valley Business Alliance, a regional chamber of commerce that represents 460 businesses across the Upper Valley, including Lebanon, Hanover and Norwich.
The Business Alliance, which formed in 2019 from the merger of the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, continues to operate Meet Up Upper Valley, an employee-retention program that provides fun and social activities for employees of Upper Valley businesses.
Meet Up Upper Valley was created 12 years ago by the Hanover chamber, which was also under Hutchins’ directorship at the time of the merger, and has continued under the Upper Valley Business Alliance. Meet Up Upper Valley hosts two to three activities a month, which range from glassblowing or cooking classes, guided hikes, kayaking trips to out-of-state excursions to New York City or Montreal.
In addition, this year Meet Up Upper Valley expanded its scope to events for people to find romantic partners or dating opportunities.
“At first I thought this would be outside of our purview, but thinking about it more it really fit with what we are trying to do,” Hutchins said. “We do often hear from people who leave say that it’s because they can’t meet anybody [or] that they haven’t been able to find people to date or to meet a partner.”
This population ranges in age from 20 to over 50, according to Hutchins, who acquired information from local rental property managers who conduct exit interviews with departing tenants.
Meet Up Upper Valley held its first singles event in June, which was a combination social mixer and speed-dating party, an activity where people rotate through timed interviews to meet one another for short introductory conversations.
The speed-dating party drew 60 attendees, ranging in ages, who gave the event positive feedback, Hutchins said.
The next event, scheduled on Sept. 23, will be a “singles party” at Whaleback Mountain in Enfield. This party, which was originally scheduled for last week but was postponed, will be a less structured and more “laid-back” event, where guests can play games, listen to music and meet new people while enjoying food and beverages.
“This will be more of a low-pressured ‘have-fun’ event where people can hopefully meet someone,” Hutchins said.
The party will run from 5:30 p.m. until around 10 p.m. The cost to attend is $10 per person, which does not include bar drinks or the barbecue dinner, which is optional. Guests are asked to register in advance. To register, visit the Meet Up Upper Valley Facebook page for a registration link.
Upper Valley residents may also find connections with people through two groups supported by the Upper Valley Business Alliance: the Upper Valley Young Professionals and the Upper Valley BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Network.
The Upper Valley Young Professionals is “a welcome wagon” for young adults in the area, between the ages of 20 and 40.
The group, which is sponsored by Dartmouth Health and Mascoma Bank, hosts two to three social events per month and has a channel on the social media platform Discord, where new residents may introduce themselves and talk to other Upper Valley professionals.
Emerson Gale, 31, a music educator from Strafford, is chairman of the Young Professionals steering committee.
Gale, who has lived in the Upper Valley for over 20 years, says the region provides a “best of both worlds,” combining the spaciousness of a rural setting, plus an access to nature and outdoor recreation, with a vibrant community culture.
But Gale also understands the difficulty for young adults to transition to the region, especially those without a familiarity with the Upper Valley.
“If you aren’t somehow involved in Dartmouth College, it takes more creativity to connect with folks of a similar age,” Gale said.
Many of the younger professionals that Gale encounters appear more interested in finding friends and fun, social activities than dating, which people often find using online dating applications.
“Game nights and trivia have been popular, which provide easy social opportunities,” Gale said. “Dating hasn’t really come up [in our surveys of young people.]”
The Upper Valley BIPOC Network was created by Turner, with the help of Hutchins and the Upper Valley Business Alliance, as a way to “build a bridge” between non-white Upper Valley residents, including new and longtime residents.
“The idea is about helping to grow a diverse workforce in this region,” Hutchins said. “One that is vibrant and creates a sense of belonging in the community so that it’s a better place for all people who want to live and work here.”
When Turner came to the Upper Valley, he saw a lack of a community hub to connect people of color who live in the Upper Valley, with the exception of resources at Dartmouth College, which Turner said are not extended to people outside the campus community.
The BIPOC network held its first gathering in May in White River Junction and continues to host monthly socials at area establishments where participants can talk, enjoy music and drinks or play games.
“I was only expecting about 10 to 15 people at our first event, but we ended up having 60 people, including people who have lived in the Upper Valley for a long time,” Turner said.
Participants have included people from a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The Upper Valley Business Alliance also launched a mobile app last year to provide a comprehensive guide to the area’s total recreation offerings, from Thetford and Lyme to Windsor and Cornish. The app includes information about retail and dining, recreational trails, children’s activities, museums and an events calendar.
“There is a lot that is happening here, but because everything is so spread out there wasn’t any one place where people could find them,” Hutchins said.
The mobile app, which is available to download for free on Google and the Apple store, employs a scraper service that funnels any event in the Upper Valley published online directly to the app, so the user can “open the app and get a glance of everything that is happening on any given weekend,” Hutchins said.
The need to hire from outside the state will likely remain a reality, due to the high number of young adults who leave New Hampshire and Vermont after graduating high school, Hutchins said. While the challenges to keep young people in the Twin States is an important issue, Hutchins said it is natural for young people to want to explore living in a new environment, often one that is more urban.
Hutchins also noted that many young people who leave the Upper Valley after high school end up returning when they settle down to raise a family.
“We [frequently] see that when they have their own children, they tend to come back,” Hutchins said. “We have great schools here and they have family ties. … So there are always going to young people who want to leave what they are familiar with to try something new. But hopefully, if our economies are growing and we create an environment that is a great place to live and raise families, at some point we will get them back.”
Patrick Adrian can be reached at pfadrian25@gmail.com.
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