“I’m a pretty good example of Stay Work Play’s mission. I graduated from Bedford High School in 2011. I grew up in New Hampshire, and I definitely was the high schooler that said, ‘I have to get out of New Hampshire. I have to must leave to live my life.’ I thought of New Hampshire as a small bubble, a small community, and I wanted to expand.”
As executive director of Stay Work Play New Hampshire, Corinne Benfield’s mission is to help the Granite State retain and attract young people — a tough gig in a place with one of the oldest populations in the country.
As of July 1, 2023, the median age in New Hampshire was 43.4 years old, making it tied with Vermont as the second oldest state in the United States by median age, behind only Maine, according to the NH Fiscal Policy Institute. More than 20% of the state’s population is over 65.
Stay Work Play, established as a nonprofit in 2009, grew out of the 55% Initiative announced in January 2007 by then-University System of New Hampshire Chancellor Stephen Reno to promote New Hampshire to future college graduates, encouraging 55% or more of new graduates to “stay, work and play” here.
Benfield, Stay Work Play’s third executive director since its founding, joined the nonprofit last fall after stints with the Currier Museum of Art and the Greater Manchester Chamber. She recently visited NH Business Review to be a guest on the “Down to Business” podcast. This story was adapted from that interview.
Q. Stay Work Play has morphed somewhat since its founding. Tell us a little bit about the roots of the organization, why it exists and why it still needs to exist.
A. We were technically incorporated in 2009, so we’re still a fairly new nonprofit in the grand scheme of things. We were really the brainchild of a few key players back in 2007 who really understood the long-term investment needed in cultivating a highly diverse and talented pool of young people for New Hampshire.
We really saw that flourish in the first phase of Stay Work Play, where the issue of building a pipeline for workforce and cultivating a community of young people in New Hampshire came to the forefront of people’s minds when they thought about New Hampshire’s growth.
How do we track in-migration of young people? For context, our demographic is 18 to 44ish. Phase two of Stay Work Play’s is data tracking, including the Quality of Life Index, which is one of the core functions of our work. That’s something that happens every three years. We’re coming up on our 2025 Quality of Life index, which is going to be huge in the next year.
Q. New Hampshire needs to do more work on in-migration. How we can go about doing that?
A. Stay Work Play’s strategic mission is about the in-migration of young people and retention. For our third phase, which I’m lucky to be at the helm of, we really want to look at promotion of our state, how Stay Work Play can be a promotional partner in branding New Hampshire and sharing all of the really wonderful things that New Hampshire has to offer to a broad audience. We are pretty active on social media. But it’s also about collaboration with partners, with our stakeholders, like our employers who are investing in Stay Work Play. We have a lot of opportunity here in New Hampshire to make a career, a really vibrant career, as a young person.
Q. What drew you to want to work for this organization and take this over?
A. I’m a pretty good example of Stay Work Play’s mission. I graduated from Bedford High School in 2011. I grew up in New Hampshire, and I definitely was the high-schooler that said, “I have to get out of New Hampshire. I must leave to live my life.” I thought of New Hampshire as a small bubble, a small community, and I wanted to expand. At that point in my life, I did not think there was room for expansion here.
I went to school in Savannah, Georgia, and did my undergrad there. I have a BFA in painting. After college, I thought, well, the only place where I can have a career in the arts is New York City. That was disproved. Coming from Savannah, Georgia, into New York was a very different lifestyle.
I took a pause, came back home and I ended up finding myself at the Currier Museum of Art here in Manchester and having this aha moment, this really important aha moment, where I saw this incredible fine arts collection right in my hometown. I still have a really warm spot in my heart for the museum. It’s what attracted me back to New Hampshire and what kept me here and offered me a really impactful career path.
Part of that also was this affirmation that Stay Work Play offered me, too. I remember coming downtown in Manchester and there was a billboard at the time on Bridge Street that said, “Stay, work, play in New Hampshire.” And after looking into the organization, it dawned on me that people want me here. New Hampshire wants me to stay as a young person.
