Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Vibrancy - is it only an "age" thing?

November 17^th, 2009

Deep breath Diana! Okay - I'm 58 years old, I'm darn cute, I'm full of energy and I've got myself fooled that I am still 35 years old! Why does this matter? Well, it may not but I started something on Facebook today and I want to take a moment to provide more detail. My original post was:

"Does a vibrant core city only include efforts/programs that focus on people under the age of 40? Seems as if so much is made of this and yet I know we need to attract younger people to West MI and help them stay! However, it feels like we may be alienating so many other people."

The genesis of this comment comes from about 24 months of reading, listening and trying to understand what makes a city and the surrounding region attractive to many people! In fact what makes it so attractive that people want to stay and put down roots in a great place to live, work and play! The vision statement of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation in fact is: "We envision a magnetic, interconnected West Michigan community." That was written and adopted 4 years ago so this has been an issue for GRCF for quite some time.

Consultants, CEOs for Cities, business leaders, Chambers of Commerce, economic development organizations, West Michigan Strategic Alliance and many others have been pressed into action to zero in on what makes a community an attractive place for many people and specifically what make GR the place to be.

I have issues with some of the activity above because frankly some of the efforts are literally climbing over each other and not much attention is being paid to duplicative efforts. I hope that all this activity will help build and keep metro GR vibrant and alive.

AND I love reading tweets and Facebook entries from the local Young Nonprofit Professionals Network and other young professional groups. The Next Gen movement in philanthropy is one that I embrace and appreciate because the talent is simply phenomenal! Amanda St. Pierre on our staff is one of these exceptional leaders and has the wisdom of someone much more experienced. She creates many of our communication messages in such a unique and readable manner. She is something else! Amanda and our VP for PR/Marketing, Roberta King, are a dynamic team! So this isn't about complaining about the young professionals making their way because we should be paving the way each and everyday!

It is the emphasis being placed on all things for all people UNDER 40 years of age! I'm certainly feeling it! Is the only way Grand Rapids can be determined a "cool city" if it is populated by all people much, much younger than me? At a recent business luncheon I was struck by the encouragement from the podium that persons under the age of 40 should be encouraged to join up! I looked around the table where I was seated and stared at six business women who were perhaps a bit over 40 though not that much. I joked and said well how welcome do you feel now?

I embrace all age groups, all backgrounds, all differences - all of it! That is WHAT makes a "hip happening" city. Yes we need to keep the younger generations enthused about their city and yet we need to keep our "experienced adults" excited about staying here as well! This is a complex issue and I'll keep writing about this in future posts. We need jobs to keep all ages here - we need acceptance of differences - we need new industries - we need to stop the state and local governments from bleeding!