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Quesnel Young Professional Network builds connections for young people

The network is dedicated to helping young people put down roots in Quesnel
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The Quesnel Young Professionals Network (QYPN), which was started as a part of Project Comeback Quesnel, is intended to encourage young professionals to put down roots and move to or stay in Quesnel.

Amanda Vibert, who works as the coordinator of Project Comeback Quesnel for the Fraser Basin Council, says she first started researching the factors which encourage young professionals to either stay in or leave the city in January.

She refers to them as the push and pull factors that come into consideration when people are thinking about either staying in Quesnel, leaving, or returning to the city from elsewhere.

Vibert first started by conducting face to face interviews with people in the city before creating a survey, which was made available to the public to fill out in January. She says she received 364 survey responses. She analyzed each of those responses, and, based on the data she collected, decided to start the QYPN and a mentoring program in Quesnel.

“Project Comeback Quesnel is essentially an attraction and retention initiative,” says Vibert. “So, how can we make Quesnel a place where people, young professionals, want to be?”

READ MORE: Project hopes to gain insight on attracting youth back to Quesnel

Vibert says her research found that when people fail to make connections in the community, they are much more likely to leave. “So the network is meant to address that and provide a space where people can come together and start to really form their own social groups and connect to the community.”

QYPN is an organization helping young people in Quesnel get together and meet new people. A young professional is as anyone who considers themselves a young professional, and wants to get out and meet new people, says Vibert. There isn’t an age limit.

So far, the group, which is funded by the Rural Dividend Fund and the City of Quesnel, has hosted two trivia nights at Wings. The first was a music trivia night and the next a general trivia night. The events evolved significantly from one to the next. At the first one, attendees sat within their own groups and friends and simply played trivia and took advantage of some free appetizers.

The second event was dramatically more geared toward networking. Attendees sat with a table full of strangers and maybe one friend, and in between trivia rounds there was an icebreaker game for bonus points. For example, participants would be asked to find someone who was bilingual, or who attended school in a different province, and write down their name.

The events are planned by Vibert and a small group of dedicated volunteers – and they’re working to recruit others moving forward.

Vibert says the hope is to form a core group of volunteers who will be able to carry the network forward once her work is complete, and that it continue to be supported and sponsored by local businesses when their funding ends.

The next event the QYPN is hosting will take place this Friday, Oct. 26 in the Billy Barker Showroom at the Billy Barker Casino Hotel. Vibert says the goal of the event is to “provide an opportunity for people to meet each other in a casual setting.”

She adds that the night will consist of a series of icebreaker activities “to break down that awkward feeling of discomfort that we all experience when we’re trying to meet new people.”

Anyone interested in attending is asked to RSVP by email to quesnelypn@gmail.com. There will also be appetizers and a cash bar available for participants.

The other part of Project Comeback Quesnel is the mentoring program. The Foot in the Door Mentor Program is run out of the Chamber of Commerce for those both interested in being a mentor or a mentee. In September, they hosted a Mentor Masterclass for all those interested in becoming a mentor, to teach them what exactly mentoring looks like and how to best communicate with and support their mentees.

Vibert says anyone, not just business professionals, are welcome to take part in the program, as long as they are looking to grow and develop themselves.