A family owned grocery store in a small town closes its door. A once-thriving Main Street is now a shell of its former self. A community that once flourished sees its population dwindle.
Those stories are all too familiar for people across greater Nebraska.
Yet a recent survey of young people across the state painted a different kind of story, one that bodes well for rural communities that have faced those realities over the past couple of decades.
More than half of the over 4,000 students at 43 different rural schools who answered the Nebraska Youth Survey indicated they are somewhat or extremely likely to live in the area they currently live in when they are adults, the Journal Star's Jenna Ebbers reported. A majority of students surveyed said their ideal community size is small like their hometowns. And students also reported not feeling a negative stigma around returning to or staying in their small towns after high school.
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The survey, produced by the Nebraska Community Foundation and the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, also showed that many students listed things like safety, good schools and close proximity to family as priorities when deciding where to live.
This should be welcome news for rural Nebraska, which desperately needs to retain young people and reverse the brain drain plaguing the state at large and causing small, rural towns to shrink.
It should also be a call to action to lawmakers, chambers of commerce and others to do more to incentivize young people to become a part of their communities after high school and college.
For that is one challenge the survey, which was administered over the past five years, clearly illustrated: While most students feel connected to their small communities, an overwhelming number of respondents said they don't feel like they play an actual role in said community. Opportunities, like internships and job shadowing, for example, may be lacking in small towns.
Part of the solution is getting the information out. Exposing students to different careers available in rural areas of the state could lead more young people to feeling like they play an integral role.
The survey's findings should also stimulate efforts to implement programs to encourage these young people already eager to stay to plant their roots. Economic development initiatives to spur Main Street small business and efforts to expand broadband can be the catalyst for growth.
And in addition to not only making young people who are raised in those communities feel like they are a part of the whole, those who are new to the community — or the state or country — should also be welcomed.
A survey is one thing. It's going to take investing in our small towns to ensure these optimistic numbers indeed portend a brighter future — and a better story — for greater Nebraska.