Young Gamechangers coming to the community this fall

Published 9:00 am Monday, April 10, 2017

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Milledgeville/Baldwin County has been selected as the next community to be the target of GeorgiaForward‘s Young Gamechangers program.

Young Gamechangers brings together 50 young professionals ages 24 to 40 from around the state to propose solutions for challenges being faced by the target area. Applications are currently being accepted online through May 12 at www.georgiaforward.org.

“Right now we’re accepting applications from participants from anywhere in Georgia between the ages of 24 to 40 from any professional sector,” said Kris Vaughn, executive director of GeorgiaForward. “Roughly one-third of the class will be from the Milledgeville community, one-third from Metro Atlanta and one-third from Greater Georgia.”

Once the team is selected, members will assemble in Milledgeville for an overnight stay Aug. 10 where they will learn about the community and its history. They will return for another overnight session in October before presenting their final recommendations Friday, Dec. 7. Those recommendations will be very detailed in nature, including a roadmap, budget, and other steps needed to follow through.

Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Angie Martin participated in the program when it covered Douglasville/Douglas County.

“I actually submitted Milledgeville as one of the challenge cities before I even participated in the program because I was that sure that I knew it was successful,” Martin said. “I heard about some of the great things they had initiated in some of the previous cities… I think this would only be positive for Milledgeville.”

She said the young professionals she worked with varied widely both in their backgrounds and areas of expertise.

“Absolutely,” Martin said when asked if Gamechangers was a good way to get outsiders’ perspectives on the community. “It’s really good to have a couple of local folks in each group because they can tell you what’s worked before and what hasn’t worked before especially if they’re leaders and they have good knowledge of everything from political decisions to maybe what’s worked in the school system to economic development.”

The individuals will be broken up into four groups, each with its own focused challenge area for the community and locals selected will be spread across the groups to let others know what has and hasn’t worked in the past. The areas for Milledgeville/Baldwin County have yet to be selected.

“We will announce our challenge questions during the opening session of the program in August,” Vaughn said. “The areas, however, are such that the recommendations will have a positive ripple effect throughout the community when implemented.”

Martin shared some examples from her time serving as a Gamechanger in Douglasville. She said the team was charged with attracting and retaining millenials, making the downtown a destination rather than an area to be passed over, offering students opportunities outside of the school system, and economic development based around the city’s bypass.

“The Young Gamechangers program participants are between the ages of 24 to 40 as we have focused on the emerging leader/young professional,” Vaughn said when asked why that age range was chosen. “Part of our mission is to create a talent pipeline within Georgia, which we think this program is doing that by targeting this age group. We feel that working with professionals in this age range not only gives our recommendations a lot of creativity because of the varying levels of perspective in this age range but also brings different things to the table. We look for participants that are out of college with work experience that have demonstrated their desire to be involved in their community and/or state.”

Other communities targeted by Young Gamechangers include Americus/Sumter County, Dublin/Laurens County, Augusta, and LaGrange/Troup County.

“We are excited to be working in Milledgeville and Baldwin County. We have already received a great deal of support in the community for the program and will continue to work to engage the community and its leaders as we approach our opening session in August.”