By Darlene Brace
The Jamestown Young Professionals (JYP) is a group of area professionals that get together for networking and other events. These events allow participants to build relationships, collaborate, and give support to each other. The Jamestown Young Professionals was initially launched in 2015 and has gone through various iterations. Although initially housed and supported by the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, it has now been housed and supported by the local United Way since 2022. The United Way is the backbone of JYP and gives support, coordination, and sponsorship.
Although it is named “young professionals” it is all inclusive, meaning that they welcome and include people of all ages and professions. The members are not all doctors, lawyers, and teachers but includes beauticians, electricians, contractors, entrepreneurs, or anyone else that’s out in the business world. Basically, it is open to anyone that is interested in participating.
Katie Castro, who is the Director of Advancement of the local United Way said, “The mission is to connect, develop, and position young professionals from the community for increased leadership and impact. JYP cares about recruiting and retaining young people in this area and energizing them for long-term fulfillment in Chautauqua County.”
One ongoing networking event takes place every third Thursday of the month at Crown Street Roasting in downtown Jamestown. This is an informal networking meeting from 8:30am-10:30am, where people gather and drink coffee, and includes participants introducing themselves and interacting with each other.
Jamestown Young Professionals have other events as well. Periodically they will have Happy Hour Networking get togethers at area businesses. In May of this year, they had an event in which local downtown Jamestown business Art, Cloth, and Craft was featured. The owners, who are a pair of local sisters who own the business together, shared their business tips. Also in May, JYP attended a workshop called Developing the Leader Within You.” It was hosted by the Northern Chautauqua Young Professionals. Cindy Aronson led the workshop that featured “The Five Levels of Lead-ership” and included developing leadership skills through hands on activities and more. It was a great workshop for all that attended.
On Friday, June 7th there was a meeting at The Carousel Bar at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel. This meeting featured Kim Carlson. Kim is a Jamestown area resident and business owner of Peapod and Juniper in Lakewood. She spoke about her personal business experiences and gave tips to young creatives.
In July, they will be having a table set up at Family Day at Southern Tier Brewing between 1-6pm. Their table will have brochures and members there to promote the Young Professionals organization and to answer any questions. They will have a similar booth set up at the Lucy Fest in August.
Moving forward, they are planning and looking forward to a mixer with the Erie PA Young Professionals group as well as a mixer with Northern Chautauqua County Young Professionals.
Some of members of the Jamestown Young Professionals participate in planning sessions. These planning sessions are led by Kirstie Lind Hanson. They meet monthly to discuss and plan future events. These young professionals and others like them are the present and future work force of this area.
Many baby boomers are retired or getting ready to retire. It is said that by 2025, Millennials and Gen- Xers will be 75% of the global workforce as well as here locally. Groups like this are important to the growth and transformation of our community. We need to have local businesses grow and thrive and encourage young people to stay here in this community and not move elsewhere to live and work. Communication and collaboration of area professionals and area businesses will help with this endeavor.
Whether you are a young professional or other business owner, or maybe just young at heart, you might want to join this group. Maybe you are just curious and want to attend an informal gathering like the one mentioned above that takes place at Crown Street Roasting.
Joining the Jamestown Young Professionals is free. If you want more information, you can go on their Facebook page, where you will find updated information about any events they may be having. There is also a Networking Basics post that gives a lot of useful networking information. You can also contact Katie Castro at kcastro@uwayscc.org. Katie said, “JYP is all inclusive. Anyone who is interested, regardless of age or occupation is welcome to join us.”