Welcome Mat- "Come Home Montana" program is reaching out to show people the benefits of living and working in small Montana communities

In the central Montana town of Hobson, population 250, there is no economic development corporation, no economic development budget and no firm economic development strategy.

By Jill Fitzsimmons Special to the Missoulian “Picture the Progress 2003”

That doesn’t mean, however, that the town isn’t eager to light a spark and get the economic ball rolling. While Hobson may not have the funds to do some serious economic development, it has the enthusiasm.

To start, Hobson is showing people wishing to move to the area what they have to come home to.

Cynthia Denton, a local business owner and community volunteer in Hobson, wants to reach out to people looking to return to a small community for not only the lifestyle it provides but also for its business opportunities. People are becoming more aware that small Montana towns such as Hobson that have DSL available are viable places to run a business, said Denton, who has lived in Hobson 35 years.

“It’s a really rich lifestyle,” Denton said of living in Hobson. “I think people don’t really realize all that is here- all that is possible.”

Hobson is one of 12 participating communities in Come Home Montana, a project of Montana Jobs Network. The communities will post information about themselves through the Montana Jobs Network Web site http://www.montana-jobs.net and open up lines of communication between themselves and people eager to live in Montana and make a living here.

Montana’s rural communities have been hit hard in the last several years, said Julie Foster of Stevensville, executive director and president of Montana Jobs Network.

Young people are migrating out of their hometowns, believing they cannot stay or return because of a lack of opportunity, Foster said. The agricultural communities also have been dealing with low commodity prices as well as a seven-year drought, she said. There’s a lack of new businesses to offset this decline in the local economies, she said.

And for the entrepreneurs who would like to one day live in these communities, they have no invitation because of a lack of formal economic development agencies, Foster said.

These are two groups, the communities and out-of-state business people, that want each other, and the information isn’t flowing back and forth, Foster said.

“This is a tool that we can use to turn this situation around, said Gloria O’Rourke of the Montana Economic Developers Association http://www.medamembers.org/index.php , which is working with Foster on the project.

Come Home Montana is a project of Foster’s Web site http://www.Montana–Jobs.net
Now three years old, the nonprofit online job resources site encourages businesses to hire local graduates, resident Montanans and out-of-state workers looking to return to their home state.

Montana Job Network’s main objective is to retain a highly qualified and desirable workforce in Montana. The site receives up to 12,000 monthly hits from people in the professional and skilled job markets who are looking for work here.

The site is set up to serve both employers and job-seekers at no cost. Businesses can post the details of open positions as well as do a search to view and filter job seekers’ applications. Job seekers can post their resumes or apply for an open position as well as perform similar searches for jobs.

Montana Jobs Network has nearly 3,500 resumes and more than 100 positions posted. Those positions, which include a variety of professional occupations for highly skilled workers, pay from $24,000 to $120,000 a year.

Montana Jobs Network, which relies on donations from the businesses and organizations who benefit from the job site, recently was awarded a $5,000 Building a Better Economy grant from Qwest and MEDA. That money will be used to develop the Come Home Montana project.

Come Home Montana will take that Montana Jobs Network community and introduce them to the towns and cities participating in the project.

Using advanced telecommunications and technology, information about the participating communities will be available to the entrepreneurs who want to do business in Montana; they will what opportunities are available to come home to, Foster said. The communities are the keepers of their data and are responsible for keeping it updated.

Partnering with MEDA and Bear Paw Development Corp., Foster has been participating gin workshops that introduce communities to Come Home Montana. Workshops have been held in Chester, Hobson and Forsyth, Foster said. Representatives from the following communities have attended: Chester, Joplin, Conrad, Cut Bank, Stanford, Hobson, Forsyth, Custer, Hardin, Circle, Colstrip and Baker. More workshops are scheduled. The workshops show participants how to update their project’s database and Web site while also discussing rural development and business recruitment.

Turnout has been wonderful because the project is providing a “glimmer of hope” to the communities, said O’Rourke, who coordinates the workshops. Parents in the communities know there are children who want to come home to work. They only needed a tool to get started, she said.

O’Rourke hopes to eventually have 30 communities participating in Come Home Montana. By mid-October the communities will have their information up on the Web site. Communities that would like to have a workshop in their town should call O’Rourke at (406)563-5259 – or Julie Foster at (406)777-7185 –

With Montana Jobs Network and the Come Home Montana project, Foster hopes to turn around the perception that there are no employment opportunities in Montana for people who want to make the state their home. And, she hopes to see Come Home Montana empower the small communities that are participating.

“It’s only by working together that we can turn Montana around,” O’Rourke said.