Project entices former Fairfield residents to move back home

Fairfield Economic Development Association hopes to grow the local economy by enticing former residents to move back to town.

The program is known as ?Welcome Home to Iowa: Fairfield Connection.? FEDA is partnering with the staffing firm Manpower of Ottumwa to put on the program.

Carrie Jaeger, program director at Manpower, said a key part of the ?Welcome Home? project is letting Fairfield alumni know jobs are available in their old stomping grounds. She said some people wrongly assume Fairfield isn?t large enough to accommodate a highly specific skillset.

?If you?re a programmer or a marketing person, you may think the only jobs available are in Des Moines, Iowa City or Chicago,? she said. ?The truth is, we have a lot of companies in the area that can support those positions.?

Jaeger said she has already spoken with many people who have moved back to Fairfield to get an idea of what went into their decision. She has learned much about how they found their position and how it felt to move their entire family to their hometown.

?Those are the issues we want to look at,? she said. ?We might not have a position specific to their program, but what about their spouse or significant other? We?re trying to pool the resources of this town so they?re aware of the opportunities.?

Jaeger has reached out to Fairfield alumni through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. She is also finding alumni through personal contacts. For instance, she was planning to go to the Fairfield High School today to get a list of class presidents, who could put her in touch with hundreds if not thousands of alumni.

The project began in November and really took flight in January. Jaeger said it can already claim one success story. FEDA and Manpower were able to find a job for a man who was continually traveling three hours to Fairfield to visit his parents. FEDA and Manpower found him a position at Cambridge Investment Research.

One of the selling points Jaeger hits on when she?s trying to encourage former residents to return to the area is the low cost of living in Iowa.

?There are some things about living here that I can?t ?sell? because they?re just that feeling of nostalgia for Fairfield,? she said. ?I posted a picture of the town square on one of our social media sites, and it really hit a nerve with a lot of people. People expressed a lot of feelings over it.?