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Mountain State policymakers know they can't stick with the way things have always been if they want to reverse significant population loss and move forward.
Step one, of course, is to stop perpetually looking backward. But step two is to look for innovative ideas such as Ascend West Virginia.
NPR examined it and other similar programs across the country and noted the pandemic-born program has been effective enough that many individuals and families have chosen to stay long past their initial required tenure. That despite many employers believing THEY need to move backward and asking some of these folks to come back to the office.
The program is working on recruiting its second round; and has inspired First Ascent, designed to keep West Virginia college graduates from leaving the state; Teachers Ascend, to recruit classroom teachers; and Ascend Heroes to attract military veterans.
According to NPR the original program brought 700 people into the state, which meant once their families had arrived, 1,500 new West Virginians came through Ascend. An incredible 96% of them have stayed.
These are people with an average income of approximately $100,000 per year, who had so far made an approximately $580 million contribution to our economy, according to a 2023 WVU study.
If you look at what they have to say about this state -- if you look at what they love and what has made them choose it as home -- it is not the filthy politics, it's not the socio-cultural crusades of confused elected officials, it's not the cripplingly retro approach to economic policy ... it's not any of the things we KNOW drive our best and brightest young people away.
Our incredible natural treasures and warm, welcoming communities drown out all of that, for people who are comfortable in their ability to support a good quality of life for themselves.
Ascend started not as a taxpayer-funded experiment out of Charleston, by the way, but with a $25 million budget provided by Brad and Alys Smith's Wing 2 Wing foundation.
"Where the state leaned in, it was natural because the tourism department [led at the time by Chelsea Ruby] was already advertising West Virginia," Kenova native, Marshall University graduate and president, and former Intuit CEO Brad Smith told NPR.
Lawmakers, cabinet secretaries, the governor ... elected officials at all levels, across our state, MUST learn the lessons of Ascend.
Even their nonsense is not enough to drive away digital nomads whose employers provide a comfortable wage for them. Knowing they are supported financially, they can ignore the noise, and West Virginia is more than enough.
Politicians continue to demonstrate they do not want to learn this lesson. But it is clear our mission must be to diversify and expand our economy in a way that provides the same reassurance to young people who would desperately love to stay; AND stop sending the message that we are more interested in division and exclusion than in making them feel welcome at home.