A new position at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce is tasked with retaining 18- to 35-year-olds for the local labor pool.
Kendra Vincent joined the GSCC in April as workforce director to take on this task. A graduate of PORTA High School, she interned at the local Chamber while a business student at University of Illinois Springfield. She brings eight years of experience at the Grinnell, Iowa, Chamber of Commerce to her new role and plans to use what she learned moving away and then back to Sangamon County to convince young adults this is a great place to live, work and play.
To start, she met with high schools across the county last spring to assess their current efforts to expose students to local career opportunities.
“Many of them are doing things in part because there are new state requirements around workforce exposure and career readiness,” Vincent said. “But we task our education system with a lot, so the degree of success they’re achieving in some of these areas may be inhibited. That’s where I really think we can play a role in providing connections and bringing people together.”
She is creating a database of local businesspeople willing to speak with students about their career paths, along with HR professionals to instruct students on resume writing, interviewing and finding a job.
“Sangamon County falls below the national average for the number of 18- to 35-year-olds that live here,” Vincent said. “That’s something the county really wanted to start to address. When you think about the sustainability of a community, if you don’t have a younger population living there, you have all sorts of challenges ahead as the current population ages. So, they tasked the Chamber with helping address some of those barriers that are causing that younger generation to leave.”
Mike Murphy, president and CEO of the GSCC, said the position derived from discussions with Sangamon County Board Chair Andy Van Meter.
“Every spring we have a job fair for high school students to let them know about the opportunities, and Chairman Van Meter wanted us to up the engagement with trying to retain high school and college students into the area,” he said.
To create the new position, a state grant was secured by state Sen. Doris Turner, with the county administering it and the Chamber creating the program, Murphy said.
“The goal is quite simple, but complex to do it,” Murphy said. “Make sure all college and high school students understand the opportunities that we have here in Sangamon County. You do not have to leave this area to have a great career.”
In addition to high schools, Vincent is working with UIS, Lincoln Land Community College and Midwest Technical Institute.
“Fortunately, a lot of our trade school partnerships are already existing, and students are having some really good connections with employers,” Vincent said. “My goal is to help them build out those internships. We know that if a student has a really good work experience as an intern, finds a company they like and has that early adulthood community exposure, they’re going to be more likely to stick around once they graduate.”
She also plans to create opportunities for interns to engage socially with each other and the community, “to show them that the experience of living and working in Sangamon County as a young professional is very different than what they’re experiencing as a college student.”
Starting in January with a full launch next summer, Vincent aims to “create a cohort of interns, bringing them together after the workday to do professional development and explore their leadership skills, as well as some social connections to experience what Springfield is like. So maybe that’s a Lucky Horseshoes game or going to the Farmers Market together, along with our Chamber young professional events.”
Vincent and her husband are raising two daughters after choosing to move back to the area.
“Sangamon County is a great place to be,” she said. “The cost of living is low relative to some other metro areas across the state and region. There are a lot of things to do and see and be a part of here, so I hope to be able to share that perspective with students. You can have and build a really incredible career here.”
Vincent encourages any businesses and organizations, career and HR professionals who would like to participate in these efforts to contact her at workforce@gscc.org or 217-525-1173 ext. 202.
This article appears in Jobs, Fall 2026.
