Since releasing Attracting New Residents:  A Strategy for the Adirondack Park and its Communities in February, the Center has been putting the strategy’s ideas to work at both the regional and local levels.

The strategy’s cornerstone concept is to to create the conditions in Adirondack communities that will attract and retain young people in order to address the region’s demographic challenges, stabilize the workforce, and strengthen important civic institutions.   

“We know how important it is to address issues with regional significance,” said Leslie Karasin, Adirondack Program Manager for the Center, “so we’ve convened interest groups around key themes to ensure we’re getting wide input and rapidly sharing the best ideas.”  

The affinity groups include marketing communities, revitalizing downtowns, addressing the workforce housing shortage, and enhancing community-based recreation assets. The groups consist of interested community members from around the Adirondack region who meet quarterly to share best practices, discuss common challenges, and advance successful approaches. 

In addition to Center-led groups, partners are convening important conversations about additional themes, such as a group focusing on expanding broadband access convened by AdkAction.  

At the local level, the Center is forming partnerships to apply the strategy in individual communities around the Adirondack Park. While these partnerships are new, they are already pointing to exciting opportunities.   

  • In Tupper Lake, the Center is advancing recreation planning efforts, supporting community initiatives to expand broadband access, and providing support to important redevelopment initiatives. 
  • In Elizabethtown, areas for potential investment include housing development, recreational connectivity and wayfinding, infrastructure expansion and enhancements, and strengthening important community institutions. 
  • In Chester, an assessment is underway that is pointing to a similar set of possible priorities, building on the considerable planning and community investments that have been made to date by the public and private sectors in the community. 

Exploratory work underway in other communities is expected to yield additional partnerships in the months to come.    

To learn more about the Attracting New Residents initiative, join one of the affinity groups, or explore how to apply the strategy in your own community, please email Adirondack Program Manager Leslie Karasin at lkarasin@northernforest.org.