A new campaign will give moms the ammunition they need to encourage their adult children to move back home – a list of job opportunities and salaries in Central Louisiana.

Cenla Advantage Partnership on Monday launched “Bring ‘em Home Cenla," a campaign designed to attract talented, young adults back to Central Louisiana the way only a mom can.

The premise is simple: young adults who grew up in Central Louisiana often leave the area after they graduate from high school or college. Many seek higher-paying jobs while others are attracted to life in bigger cities. But a growing fact is that many, once they reach child-rearing age, wouldn't mind coming back – if only they had a job to come back to.

Couple that with the fact that their parents would love nothing better than to get their adult children, and grandchildren, to move back to the area. That's where Bring ‘em Home Cenla comes in.

Through Bring ‘em Home Cenla, CAP will publicize in advertisements and mail-outs the many job opportunities that are available in our communities. Then, when a mom calls her adult children to try to get them to return to Central Louisiana, she will be better armed, CAP President George Robertson said. “Who better to target than a mom who wants her children to come home?" he said.

The campaign comes with the fitting line: “There's a job waiting for you here. Love, Mom."

The advertisements will target local mothers, but they will appeal to anyone who lives in Central Louisiana and wants to encourage friends or relatives to move here. Where we may have told friends and relatives about how nice it is to live in Cenla, we now will be able to be more specific by citing job opportunities and salaries for professional and non-professional job openings.

“You'll be able to tell your sons and daughters to come home, not only for our family values and quality of life, but because we've got good-paying jobs here," Robertson said. “Salary levels in Central Louisiana have substantially improved over the last five years as the skilled labor market tightened."

CAP is an 11-parish, regional economic development nonprofit organization funded by individual business investors with an equal match by The Rapides Foundation. CAP is focused on growing and assisting existing businesses and entrepreneurs in Central Louisiana.

To collect data for Bring ‘em Home Cenla, CAP has been sending questionnaires to Central Louisiana businesses to find out what types of jobs they need help filling. CAP will publicize these positions to highlight the many job opportunities in this area.

Anyone interested in positions listed will be able to call CAP, which will then forward the person's resume or information to the appropriate companies.

“We know that we are facing a severe workforce shortage in Central Louisiana," Robertson said. “Our labor pool is getting tighter and tighter. Never could Bring ‘em Home be better timed for the needs of our region."

For more information, contact Robertson at 318-767-3001 or at capcenla@yahoo.com. Print