By Fiona Blick, Committee for Greater Shepparton Community Connector Program.
THE Community Connector Program has led the way with attracting, recruiting and retaining professionals through its relocation support service.
Since its inception in 2021, the program has supported around 600 professionals and their families relocate to the area, from across Australia and around the globe including the UK, New Zealand and Ireland, to fill vital skilled roles in more than 100 local businesses.
Over the coming months The Shepparton Adviser will be featuring stories and experiences from past and present clients of the Community Connector Program, where they have come from, the personal journeys they have made to get here and how they have settled into the Greater Shepparton region.
Studies have shown if people moving to a new region are not deeply connected in the first 12 months of relocating, they will move within two years, if not earlier.
As the Community Connector Coordinator, I make contact with new professionals who are referred to me by local businesses and organisations and assist with some of the challenges of relocating including helping to find a home, a job for their partner, childcare and educational options for their children, plus social networking opportunities.
Once I have connected with my client, requests for information come thick and fast.
Most are fairly standard – where is the best place to get coffee, where can their children learn to swim, who to talk to about buying a car, but some have definitely surprised me – is there a ghost-hunting organisation? Where can the client join a roller skating group? And where to take someone on the very first date! Happily, I was able to help with all these queries.
This assistance is critical as research has shown a person will choose to either stay or leave their job/town/area if their and their family’s life aspirations are not being met by the current set of living, schooling and social arrangements.
And by keeping professionals here once they have moved, it goes a long way to improving the economic outcomes for our region.
Our connection in the community allows us to form great partnerships with industry and with local businesses. Add to that, each professional who comes and stays here will strengthen both the industry they are employed in and the economy in general, well, that is just a bonus.
Currently, the region is experiencing a huge surge in job opportunities and there are many critical positions where we need to attract professionals from outside Shepparton.
If you or your business would like to know more about this service, then please reach out on communityconnect@c4gs.com.au
