Someone who is from out of state and is thinking about moving to southern Indiana, could make $5,000 as an incentive. A group called Choose Southern Indiana is offering the money to people or families who move to Dubois or Orange counties.
“It’s an experiemtn, no doubt about it. We hope it’ll work. We hope it’s worth trying again,” said Jeff Quyle, CEO of Radius Indiana, one of the three organizations putting up the money. The other two are Dubois Strong and the Orange County Economic Development Partnership, all economic development groups.
In an interview with Inside Indiana Business, Quyle said it’s not the first time this has been done, but a labor shortage is motivating them to find new talent for the area.
“We’ve just seen so many other places around the country dipping their toes into it, we thought we ought to do it, as well.”
Quyle said the retirement of a large portion of the “Baby Boomer” generation has facilitated the need for economic developers to find workers for their counties.
“Economic developers now have to work on things like population attraction, housing development, community development, even broadband growth,” he said.
Quyle said they’re putting up enough money to move about 40 families or individuals to the area. One of the rules is they have to stay for a minimum of two years.
“I think any county would say they want someone who’s in their prime working age, someone who’s going to be able to enter the community and become part of the social fabric for a number of years,” he said. “Particularly someone who’s a family person who brings themselves and a spouse and children so the schools and the local businesses and the churches all can see greater participation.”
