This past week, Publisher Crystal Miller and I attended our final session of the 2015 Editors and Publishers Community Leadership Program.

The program, which is organized by the Minnesota Newspaper Association and modeled after the successful Blandin Community Leadership Program, is geared toward rural newspapers such as the Tribune. It has been an inspiration to be a part of.

The program has stressed that the sign of a true leader is in his or her actions, not just in the title.

As part of the program, each newspaper was charged with the task of coming up with a project that incorporates some of the principles of  healthy communities.

The editors and publishers from each newspaper gave presentations about their projects — about what they may have completed so far and where we wanted to take the project in the future.

Though the Tribune’s project is still underway, our colleagues gave us positive feedback on what we have completed thus far and our plan over the next few months to finish it.

Our project — as you may have guessed — is in the form of an ongoing series in the newspaper.

In late July, we ran our first story in the series called “Meeting the Workforce Challenge,” interviewing local economic development leaders about job opportunities in Albert Lea and about the overall concern that many businesses are facing here.

On a fairly regular basis, we hear people complain that there are no jobs in Albert Lea, but after doing a little research, we found the opposite to be true.

At the time the article printed, there were more than 800 jobs in Freeborn County that had been posted in the last 30 days. While some of the jobs were entry level, others required skills such as truck drivers, registered nurses and teachers, to name a few.

We found that businesses are struggling to fill all of their positions and that there is actually a shortage of skilled workers right now in the city. Some businesses have even chosen not to come here because they are afraid they will not be able to find the employees to work.

We have looked at graduation rates and how population trends are affecting this issue. As baby boomers are retiring from the workplace, there are fewer people available to work.

We are now beginning to shift our focus to how Riverland Community College is stepping in to fill this gap, and we have been pleasantly surprised to hear all that the college is doing. Ironically, it is also Riverland’s 75th anniversary.

It is our goal that these stories will help educate both locally and at the state level about some of the concerns here.

We plan on having two to three stories a week with the series through the end of September.

Please let us know your thoughts on the series and any other avenues that may be good to look into.

We hope these efforts can make a difference.

 

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune.