Jul. 4—Dothan resident Anna Copeland needed a new, higher-paying job this spring, so like most people she went internet surfing for options.
Copeland looked in north Alabama and the Florida panhandle because she heard they are growing areas. An advertisement for a new program for Decatur’s Best & Brightest Next program caught her eye.
She is one of the first members of the new B&B Next program aimed at bringing experienced professionals to Decatur.
Decatur-Morgan County Entrepreneurial Center Director John Joseph called B&B Next “the first program in the country to attract mid-career professionals with 20-plus years of experience.”
Sydney Taylor, director of marketing and recruitment, said this is a change from the successful Best and Brightest Initiative that seeks to bring young professionals right out of college to Decatur and then incorporates them into the local community.
“But there’s never been anything done for people with a lot more professional experience,” Taylor said.
Taylor said B&B Next isn’t focused on a specific age. Instead, they’re looking for as many as eight people in the first class who are experienced professionals.
“We’re looking at people with 20-plus years of experience,” Taylor said. “They’re probably going to be in their 40s, 50s or 60s, but we really don’t want to put an age to it.”
Joseph said B&B Next will be like the original Best and Brightest Initiative, which provides $15,000, networking, mentorships and special opportunities to young professionals who move to and live in Decatur for five years.
While Best and Brightest, which has brought 108 people to Decatur, has always focused on young professionals in science, technology, engineering and math, Joseph said they’re being more flexible with the career fields in B&B Next.
“We’re targeting people taking a job in north Alabama and looking for a place to settle for that new phase in life,” Joseph said. “We’re also looking for entrepreneurs who might want to relocate or start a business.”
Joseph said they want people with a history of community involvement. They’ve always marketed Best and Brightest, a program supported by private, city and state funding, mainly to colleges and universities. Now they’re still trying to figure out where to market B&B Next to reach experienced professionals who might want to move and live in Decatur.
A licensed professional counselor, Copeland started her new job on May 1 at Grand Oaks Counseling on East Moulton Street. The money from B&B Next will help with her student loans she used to graduate from Troy University.
She said the program gave her something more than just financial support; it also provides local connections for a newcomer with no family or friends in the area.
Taylor, Jennifer Spiller and other Best and Brightest staff members showed her around Decatur, helped her find an apartment and connected her with a new church. She said this help added a lot to her happiness in the new city.
“They are kind of like an extended family, and they made a huge difference,” Copeland said. “I didn’t feel alone. They made me feel like I already knew people and things are so familiar.”
Copeland said she also connected with the other three new members of B&B Next.
“It’s like our little friends group,” Copeland said. “There’s always something going on. You don’t always have to attend, but they’re so much fun.”
Taylor said they also hope the B&B Next members will become mentors for the Best and Brightest young professionals.
They’ve just started taking applications, but they already have four of the eight members for this first year. Joseph said they plan to pick the other four before the end of the year.
Joseph estimated B&B Next will cost about $24,000 a year, or $120,000 if all of the participants stay with the program and live in Decatur for five years.
“We are allocating a small portion of our existing funding to the pilot,” Joseph said. “We can use the state funding for Best and Brightest but not to B&B Next.”
Taylor and Joseph said this new phase of B&B Next won’t affect the 2025 class of Best and Brightest young professionals.
“We will continue growing Best and Brightest responsibly but aggressively,” Joseph said. “B&B Next will have separate programming, and we will pilot a smaller class.”
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432