One Greene County organization is preparing for a shift in how to attract potential employees to work and live in the county.

The Greene County Diversity Project is an initiative to look into bringing more Latino population into Greene County to fulfill what Greene County Development Corporation Executive Director Ken Paxton says are over 200 available jobs in the county. Head of the Steering Committee Chuck Offenburger talked about why he chose to be a part of this venture to the GCDC Board at their December meeting. 

Offenburger said he was on a group for Governor Tom Vilsack’s 2010 plan to grow the state of Iowa, including how to increase its population through immigration. He also served on a diversity council when he lived in Storm Lake in the early 2000s and saw firsthand how diversity can spur growth for the next couple of decades. He explained his goal of what he wants to accomplish here in Greene County.

“And I want to engage our people, rank and file, in a welcoming atmosphere for people from elsewhere and that this will be the elusive thing we’ve all been after for so many years of what can trigger growth. This is going to do it.”

One of the other leaders of the Greene County Diversity Project is Carlos Arguello with Latino IQ. He is a first-generation immigrant who moved to California when he was six and has been living in Carroll since he was in middle school. Arguello told GCDC members the purpose of Latino IQ is to help employers acquire, retain and organically grow an employment culture to foster diversity and have employment growth. He said initially, he wants to develop a storytelling aspect for potential employees to work and/or live in Greene County.

“Share that story to say why are you going to be better or why could you and your family be better over here versus where you’re at today? What is the value, what are the components from a working capacity, from a living capacity, and also from a community capacity of spending time, money and your efforts in a community like Greene County?”    

Arguello said this is a long-term project, and the steering committee has developed goals for the next year to start to see the diversity trend shift in Greene County.