Are your kids (or grandkids) too far away? 

The path of many young people today is to finish college -- in some cases high school -- and get out of Dodge before the ink is dry on their diploma.  Sound familiar?  What this means for the family that stays behind is expensive airplane tickets and long car rides if you want to remember what your kids look like or make sure your grandkids know what you look like.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  More and more often these days, the difficulties of raising a family in a big city are more than many people want to bear and they are considering returning to their home towns.  Issues such as availability of affordable day care, long commutes eating up quality family time, and a general need for family support (more than just free babysitters!) are driving young to mid-career professionals to take a look at the opportunities available back home.   There is also a growing number of folks in this age range choosing to relocate back home to become more directly involved in the care of family members, be it parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles.  But if they’ve been gone most of their adult lives, they often don’t have the connections they need to make the transition an easy one.  Help make their decision a little easier by connecting them to NEON (the NWLA Employment Opportunities Network), which shines a light on Northwest Louisiana as a great place to live, work and play. The NEON website (www.workthisway.org) contains information about industries that drive the regional economy, profiles of employers in the region, and career and networking-related events in the area.  It also provides a snapshot of the community and cultural resources the region has to offer for people new to the region or those who have been gone for several years and need a refresher.  So if you’ve got kids living far away, send them to NEON today and you could save yourself thousands of dollars in future airfare!

NEON is a program of the Northwest Louisiana Economic Development Foundation.  For more information, visit www.workthisway.org and select “Contact Us.”