Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce Builds Community Connections

As rural communities in west central Minnesota look to prosper, one growth strategy is welcoming new residents to the community, especially those who have moved from other nations.

What can rural communities do to welcome these newcomers?

It’s an important question as community advocates understand that building the local social economy pays dividends for the future.

One can look to the region’s largest population center for some examples. The Fargo Moorhead West Fargo (FMWF) Chamber of Commerce has a robust core of initiatives that bring people together to build community.

Tyler Fischbach, Vice President of Public Relations for the FMWF Chamber of Commerce, notes that the Chamber “needs to be really hyper-aware of what’s going on in the community or what’s not going on in the community, and figuring out how we can make things better, right?”

Fischbach notes other initiatives that connect people. “As an example, we have the long-standing Young Professionals Network, which we believe people gravitate toward in order to engage and connect with others to make those lifelong connections and network. But we can’t assume people will simply find us, we have to go out and take an active role in creating space for these communities – which was why we intentionally launched the Women Connect program several years ago.”

The FMWF Chamber of Commerce’s Vice President of Workforce, Jane Vangsness Frisch, explains that local leaders know one of the biggest strategies to a successful community is that everyone feels welcomed, everyone feels they have connections in the community.  “I think those are the two pillars of our Professionals of Color committee,” VangsnessFrisch says. “Creating that connection and having that place to connect is really the why behind this work.”

Working toward a goal

The goal of Professionals of Color is to create inclusive opportunities for community Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) members to develop both personally and professionally through meaningful engagement. That also comes with a sense of belonging, Vangsness Frisch adds.

Vangsness Frisch says rural belonging isn’t that different than urban belonging. “It’s just that we have different barriers, right? And those barriers may look really different,” she said. Sometimes those barriers can be addressed with some very simple things like offering a safe space for community discussions.

The FMWF Chamber of Commerce’s Icebreakers effort is another piece of the welcoming puzzle. “Icebreakers are champions of our community who connect with new people in our community,” Vangsness Frisch said. “It’s kind of like a “find a friend” who can give someone a little local feeling about a community.”

So, for other small communities, just helping new residents make local connections is a huge part of the belonging effort. Who in your community has the passion and fortitude to engage others?

“We’re connectors,” Vangsness Frisch notes. “And that’s really what this is about. As a chamber, our entire mission is connecting and ensuring that we can lift up the entire region.”

Fischbach said they enlist community input to ask what groups they could better engage with and elevate. “That’s kind of the idea behind these efforts,” he said. “It isn’t just the Chamber. Other community members expressed this need, and everyone agreed that somebody needed to take the lead on something like this. And it’s perfect for the Chamber to be the convener and get these programs off the ground.”

So, what’s in the future for engaging new residents in the Fargo-Moorhead area? Fischbach says to keep a mindset that there will always be issues and challenges to solve in any community. “We are always looking for new opportunities to engage our newcomers,” he said.

Communities can also look to West Central Initiative’s Welcoming Week activities in mid-September to see some inspiring events aimed at rural belonging. The list of more than 30 events can be found at wcif.org/rural-belonging/.