SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) -- On Monday, the former United States Ambassador to Denmark, Alan Leventhal, visited western Massachusetts to address the growing number of people leaving the Bay State every year. He hosted a town hall event at the Hope Center for the Arts in Downtown Springfield.

Leventhal, who was the ambassador from 2022 to 2025, recently launched his “Common Sense for the Commonwealth” organization. Their goal is to identify common-sense solutions supported by the broad majority of voters.

Leventhal tells Western Mass News, the state’s lack of job growth and the growing number of people leaving the state is a worrying trend to watch out for, “The fact is, we’re not doing well as a state. When one in three adults in a Boston Globe poll said that they would consider leaving the state, that’s not a good sign. When we rank 47th out of 50th in job growth, that’s not a good sign... We’re concerned that our children and grandchildren won’t be living in this state. And we have to turn this around.”

Leventhal spent the morning listening to residents talk about the struggle to find affordable housing and good-paying jobs. The group plans to take feedback from Mondays’ town hall to Boston, to push for new policies.

This was the first stop on the organization’s listening tour; that will continue across the rest of the state over the coming months.