Building a North Idaho our kids can come home to

One of the most important questions facing North Idaho has little to do with how many people are moving here. I keep thinking about the young people who already call this place home. When a kid graduates from Lake City, Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls or one of our other local high schools, do they see a future for themselves here? If they leave for school, work, military service or to experience life somewhere else, will they still be able to come home when they are ready?

That question matters as North Idaho continues to grow. People move here from across the country for reasons those of us who live here understand. We get to live in a beautiful place with good schools, growing businesses and neighbors who still show up when somebody needs help. There is a lot to love here, which is exactly why so many people want to call North Idaho home. The challenge is making sure the young people we raised still see room for themselves.

Housing sits at the center of that conversation. Someone in their twenties trying to build a career is looking at rents and home prices that would have been hard to imagine when many of us were getting started. They may be paying student loans, learning a trade or trying to save for a first home while thinking about whether they could afford to raise a family here. Those numbers shape real decisions about whether to stay, leave or come back.

We should care because today’s young adults will eventually own many of our businesses, care for our families, teach our kids and help lead this community. Some grew up here. Others are choosing North Idaho as their home. Either way, the future gets stronger when younger people find opportunity and relationships here, then feel that their work has a place in what comes next.

The good news is that we already have some important pieces in place. North Idaho College is one of them. After an extraordinarily difficult stretch, NIC returned to good accreditation standing this year and enrollment is growing again. President Nick Swayne deserves credit for steady leadership through a period when the future of an institution that matters deeply to this community was uncertain. The faculty, staff, students and people throughout North Idaho who stayed committed to the college deserve credit as well.

Now we get to focus more of our energy on what a healthy NIC makes possible. The Workforce Training Center serves more than 5,000 students annually through apprenticeship, health career training, professional development and other workforce programs. NIC reported a 90.2 percent completion rate for its trades apprenticeships in 2024-25, preparing people for careers in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, construction and other fields where North Idaho needs skilled workers.

That is economic development in one of its most practical forms. A young person can learn here, build relationships here and move into a meaningful career without having to move hundreds of miles away. For some students, a four-year university is the right path. Another young person may find a better fit through nursing, technical education, an apprenticeship or a local degree that gets them working sooner and with less debt. We need all of those paths because our community needs all kinds of people building lives here.

Education is only part of what helps young adults stay. Earlier this year, the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber launched NEXT GEN Coeur d’Alene, a leadership and mentorship program for young professionals ages 23 to 35. I have had the opportunity to be involved, and one number from the launch has stayed with me. Forty young professionals joined the inaugural program, while 43 experienced business and community leaders volunteered to mentor them. We had more mentors than mentees. I love what that says about this community.

Young people here want to grow as leaders and contribute to North Idaho. Established leaders are willing to open doors, share what they have learned and help someone younger find their footing. Most of us who have built anything meaningful had somebody do that for us. Somebody took a phone call, made an introduction or helped us see around a corner we did not know was there. Mentorship does not solve housing costs or remove the financial risk of starting a career or business. It does give people relationships and perspective that make the next step easier to see.

This whole subject became more personal for me recently because my son Jacob is one of those young adults finding his way home. He grew up here, went to Lake City High School and spent summers with our family boating and wake surfing on Hayden Lake. He eventually left North Idaho, became an electrician, worked his way through the trade and earned his journeyman license. Now he is moving home and starting his own electrical company, Shaka Electric.

I am proud of him because I am his dad. His company is not the point of this column. What matters to me is that he wanted to come back, and I keep wondering how many other kids who grew up here are somewhere else thinking about the same thing. Some are building careers in other cities. Others stayed in North Idaho and are trying to figure out how to move from an apartment into a first home or turn a skill they have spent years learning into a business. I want both groups to believe there is room here for what they hope to build.

What I hope they find is a community ready for them. A strong NIC gives them education and training connected to where North Idaho is going. Programs like NEXT GEN connect younger people with experienced mentors, while local employers get the chance to build careers worth staying for. We also have to keep working on housing because the rest of this gets much harder if a teacher, electrician, nurse or young entrepreneur cannot afford to live in the community where they work.

Helping the next generation also means keeping the bar high while keeping the door open. Starting a business means earning customers and building trust. Moving into a new job or leadership role carries the same responsibility to do good work and serve well. Young adults deserve a fair chance to work hard and build something, with people and institutions around them willing to help them understand the path.

North Idaho has a lot going for it. NIC’s recovery under Nick Swayne gives us reason for optimism, and the response to the Chamber’s NEXT GEN program says something important about our willingness to invest in younger leaders. Employers are looking for good people, and young adults want to belong to something here. The work ahead is connecting those opportunities while taking the barriers seriously.

I hope our kids leave sometimes. There is a big world outside North Idaho, and it's valuable to experience it. They should chase opportunities and learn things we cannot teach them here. Some will find another place they love and build wonderful lives there. That is part of life. For the ones who eventually start thinking about home, I want North Idaho to remain within reach.

I want them to look back toward Coeur d’Alene and see more than the lake where they spent their summers or the house where their parents still live. I hope they see a college preparing people for the future, a business community willing to invest in younger leaders and a place where hard work still opens a path forward. Jacob is one of those kids coming back right now. I hope he is one of many.

Twenty years from now, I would love to walk through Coeur d’Alene and see businesses started by kids who once sat in our high school classrooms, professionals who trained at NIC, young families raising their children near grandparents and community leaders who remember what it felt like to grow up here. Part of North Idaho’s future should be written by the kids who grew up here and decided there was still a place for them. We have plenty here worth coming home to, and we should keep doing the work that makes coming home possible.

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Mike Baker is chief executive officer of Heritage Health.