If you were to ask the founders of Alachua County Emerging Leaders (ACEL) in 2005 why they started the organization, the answer would be simple: survival. They were a group of ambitious, young professionals who were stubbornly devoted to building fulfilling lives for themselves in Gainesville.
Alachua County was a different place in 2005. No one thought of it as a hub of young talent. It would be another year before three UF freshmen would open Grooveshark and six years before the Florida Innovation Hub at UF would rise from the ashes of Alachua General Hospital, triggering a boom in startup infrastructure. If you had dreams of a career outside of health care or higher education, you were better off looking elsewhere.
The community’s view of young people was different as well. Gainesville was a college town, and young people were synonymous with students. The power brokers of Gainesville didn’t think much of doing business with a bunch of fresh-faced college graduates.
So, a group from Leadership Gainesville Class 31, along with generous financial assistance from the Glaeser Foundation, filed the paperwork to launch ACEL. The goal was to connect young people, to create a community for young professionals to do business and to learn from one another.
Fast forward 11 years, and times have changed. The largest generation in American history, the millennials, is streaming into the workforce. Cities like Austin, Boulder and San Francisco have shown that thriving cities are those that succeed at attracting the new generation of professionals. Hundreds of research articles and New York Times best-sellers showing the importance of retaining young people in communities have poured out.
Meanwhile, a torrent of businesses have come to Gainesville for the low cost of living and exceptional quality of life. As many traditional industries struggled to adapt to new technologies, companies realized that having savvy young people in the workplace was key. Finding solutions to the brain drain became one of the most talked about problems in the area.
ACEL evolved along with that change. It is now focused less on helping young professionals do business with each other and more on finding ways to grow the community of young people. The organization is working to make Gainesville one of America’s great cities, a destination for talented young people across the United States.
ACEL does this through what economist Rebecca Ryan calls the three C’s of growing a young professional community: connecting, creating and convincing. ACEL connects young professionals to each other and to their community by hosting more than 100 events per year — they include community service, professional development, social engagement and civic duty. ACEL wants to create a community that attracts young people through public policy initiatives and work with local nonprofits. Finally, ACEL seeks to convince young professionals and students that Gainesville is more than just a college town; it is a place for young people to thrive.
There are a number of ways to get involved in ACEL. Young people are always welcome to come to the dozens of events and programs put on every month. Local businesses can join as company members, an initiative that was launched in May 2016. Company members become ACEL members themselves, giving their employees access to programs as well as other benefits. Large employers such as the Alachua County government and promising startups like Feathr have already come on board to support.
You can feel it in the air: Gainesville has all of the ingredients to become one of America’s great cities. As a community built on culture, education and innovation, sometimes it feels like one spark will make it spread like wildfire. ACEL is working to be part of that spark.
BRYAN EASTMAN is the executive director of Alachua County Emerging Leaders, a nonprofit based out of Gainesville that works to connect, inform and involve the next generation of community leaders while advocating for a community that will draw them. Learn more at www.acelfl.com, and email Bryan at 1 [email protected].