In September 2005, the Denison Development Alliance held its annual planning retreat. One of the goals of the retreat was to hear from community leaders about the needs of the community. Those leaders identified two main initiatives. Define a revitalization plan for community wide clean up and to establish a young professionals group. The simple fact that this initiative came out of that retreat as a priority signifies its importance and support with the current leadership. Studies report that young professionals first choose a place to live and then find a job. That being said, we had a purpose: To enrich our community by recruiting, uniting and developing our young professionals.

The need was apparent because our area was and still is seeing an increase in knowledge-based jobs. In many cases, these jobs are filled by the young professional demographic. We also have several professionals that want to live in this community, but have a difficult time finding professional employment in this area. Others live here, but are forced to commute to the Dallas area for their employment. There were also non-work related needs that needed to be addressed to make our community young professional friendly. Networking events, representation on local boards, and leadership initiatives are just a few of the needs identified by these young professionals.

What is the best way to address these concerns? What can we do? We are putting a significant amount of effort into uniting these professionals to develop initiatives that can bridge the gap and help meet the needs of this emerging population in our community.