Several generations have had a hand in developing and advancing Butler County.

Baby Boomers and Generation X had the torch passed to them by the Greatest and Silent generations. Now that torch is being passed on to the Millennial generation.

This up-and-coming generation is tapped as confident, self-expressive and open to change, according to a study on Millennials by the Pew Research Center. The study says this generation is also steeped in digital technology and social media and “they are history’s first ‘always connected’ generation.”

It will be this generation that is the driving force in Butler County over the next 20 years.

The Hamilton JournalNews/Middletown Journal interviewed six members of the Millennial generation who are now having an impact on the future of the county. These six leaders want to see the communities they live in succeed beyond expectations, and in the cases of Middletown and Hamilton, rise like a Phoenix from the ashes of a negative reputation.

“I think if people my age are going to have a meaningful impact on … the country, they have to be less self-centered and less self-focused,” said Middletown City Councilman Josh Laubach, a 31-year-old who is also production manager at AK Steel.

Brandon Saurber, a 28-year-old assistant to the Hamilton city manager, said he hopes his generation “can capitalize on that authenticity that we have that really makes us unique and strive for great things.”

“I hope that we rise to the challenge of the economy and be those innovators that we’re capable of being,” said the sixth-generation Hamiltonian whose city job encompasses working on economic development, strategic planning, performance management, and marketing and communications.

Millennials, as defined by the Pew Research study, are those born in 1981 and later. They get their name because they are the first generation to come of age in the new millennium..

Middletown and Hamilton are blue collar, urban communities and have reputations of struggling communities. Forbes in 2008 placed Middletown on its list of top 10 dying cities in the country.

Downtown Middletown Inc. Executive Director Patrick Kay wasn’t around when the Forbes article came out, but it placed a big chip on the community’s shoulder and he is one of many determined to prove Forbes wrong. The 31-year-old said it is his job “to take the city that Forbes said is a dying city and make it one of the most successful cities.”

He said it will be a “fun challenge” that will be “very rewarding,” and is willing to accept the stress that comes with the job, an attribute that he said was instilled in him by his parents growing up in South Carolina.

Liz Columbo, 26, is working to revitalize the Hamilton’s urban core, which is something she relishes.

“I’m passionate about revitalizing our urban cores, and cities that have healthy urban cores are successful,” said Columbo, a fellow with the city of Hamilton’s Economic Development Department. “I live in downtown Hamilton and I can’t wait to see more apartments in downtown.”

The St. Louis native said she loves the city experience.

“Hamilton is just a perfect example of a post-industrial city trying to find itself,” Columbo said. “I think it’s really important for us to be part of the process in transitioning into a new economy. Cities like Hamilton and Middletown need to be listening to people our age.”

There’s a lot of good to talk about Middletown, said Laubach.

“I refuse to accept anybody’s negative premise about Middletown,” he said. “If I get that, I simply turn it on its head. Sometimes that’s not the easiest thing to do. But I’m always an advocate.”

Laubach gets where the negative discussions come from, but helping to reshape downtown Middletown and maintain its resurgence in the coming years will be his generation’s charge.

“I’m thinking and talking positive about Middletown, about the potential and the opportunities the city has, the history and the character the city has,” Laubach said. “The city was the heart of the American industrial revolution and there are legacies all over the place.”

Kay said there needs to be a lot of other community leaders in order to make the revitalization efforts work. And with due respect to the previous generations, he said, “We want our generation to be the best generation, to take our individual communities to the next level.”

Many of the Millennials this newspaper talked with echoed a similar sentiment.

“My generation is the generation that’s going to build (the platform for the next generation),” said the 23-year-old Middletown City Councilman A.J. Smith, who owns his own marketing and campaign consulting company, ASJ & Associates.

And while not having a formal education doesn’t guarantee a job, especially in the economy that’s still recovering from the Great Recession that ended in 2009, Smith said “work ethic, ambition and drive make up one’s ability to be successful.” He said his generation will be charged ensuring jobs are available.

“I think we’re doing a little bit of that here locally with health care, research and education,” Smith said. “Since I’ve been on council those have been our top key priorities and companies we try to attract here.”

Fairfield City Councilman and Butler County Workforce One Director Adam Jones, 31, said his generation “doesn’t forget what America is all about. It’s about opportunity and freedom.”

“I hope that my generation remembers to keep America great, and it starts tat the local level — that’s where people get their core beliefs.”

Mobility, along with technology, is an advantage the Millennials will have over the past generations, Jones said. But he said his generation is gaining a reputation because of that dependency and takes pride that he understands the value of interpersonal relationships, and not always communicating via text messages or emails.

“I think that’s lost on the Millennial generation,” Jones said.

Members of the Millennial generation, like the other generations before them, believe they are smarter than the previous generations. And Butler County Commissioner Don Dixon can see that, saying, “I think the education level is stepping up.”

About 54 percent of Millennials ages 18 to 28 have some type of college education, compared to 49 percent of Generation X, 36 percent of Baby Boomers and 24 percent of the Silent Generation, according to the Pew Research study.

Educational opportunities have expanded in recent years. Butler County has many educational resources, including Miami University in Oxford and its three regional campuses in Middletown, Hamilton and West Chester Twp.; Cincinnati State Middletown, the county’s first community college; Greentree Health Sciences Academy; and Butler Tech, a school that provides youth and adult education.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” said Dixon about the next generation starting to shape the county. “The whole world’s changed (a lot faster than it has changed from previous generations), and we have to change with it. And the young people are the most readily to be able to adapt to the change.”

The Rev. Greg Tyus said this generation, while he is hopeful they will be successful, needs to be engaged.

“It’s about letting young people know there’s room for them at the table, even though they don’t look like me, dress like me, talk like me,” said Tyus, a Middletown School Board member, board member of the MALACHI Youth Opportunities Program and the Perry Thatcher Youth Conference. “Sometimes we have our own agendas as adults and we actually end up alienating any new and creative kinds of things.”

MALACHI helps those 16 to 22 know they matter and “when they feel they’re valued, that’s when the A.J. Smith’s step up, that’s when the Josh Laubach’s step up,” he said. “I think we just have to keep working at developing leaders.”

Middletown Area NAACP President Dora Bronston said she hopes more in the Millennial generation “have the courage to aspire. They need to have a passion.”

The older generations — the Baby Boomers and the Generation X members — need to help mentor the Millennials, “but then you have to have the young people allow the older people into their life,” she said.

“Those of them who need a little help, we need to work with them,” Bronston said. “Our young leaders, I commend them for their courage, and we’re asking, we’re requesting, we’re seeking for more young people to be involved in our community.”

She said there’s not enough young people involved, to learn from the older generations how to lead.

“I do have a hope in the young people that are up-and-coming that will at least try, give it a go, and take a risk and say, ‘You know what, I think I can help,’” Bronston said.