Beyond the horizon
Work extends beyond Horizons for area citiesBy JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer, jschramm@minotdailynews.com
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HORIZONS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
The Horizons project is accepting applications for its next round.
The North Dakota State University Extension Service has received Horizon funding from the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul, Minn., to work with another 15 communities with populations of 5,000 or less and poverty rates of 10 percent or more.
Lynette Flage, Horizons community leadership specialist at NDSU in Fargo, said interested cities can contact her at 265-5200 or Lynette.Flage@ndsu.edu to receive information and application forms. Applications are due Aug. 23. Applicants must have at least 10 people from their community available to meet with Flage for a briefing.
The program would begin this fall and conclude in the spring of 2010.
More work lies ahead for area communities that completed an 18-month leadership and anti-poverty program this month.
Twenty-one communities working with the North Dakota State University Extension Service in Fargo concluded the Horizons project with a celebration event July 9 in Bismarck with Gov. John Hoeven.
Since then, Anamoose residents continue to develop promotional brochures for the city, and committees that organized to track housing availability and operate a welcome wagon remain busy.
Harvey still is developing a housing survey and a business incubator and plans to hold its first Artfest. In Stanley, work continues on a housing survey and establishment of a community foundation.
Rolette is going forward with plans to introduce Cash 101, a game to educate youth on money management, to schools and youth clubs.
"People in Rolette also feel that the real benefit from the whole Horizons process was the Leadership Plenty," Jo Gilje of the Rolette Horizons Committee said. "Leadership Plenty really helped us out in working as a community."
The leadership training program promoted community consensus rather than letting a few people make decisions and do the work, she said.
Krista Littlefield, a Mountrail County Extension agent, said Stanley saw new leaders step forward and win election to city boards. Horizons also forced people to take a hard look at their community, she said.
"It made a lot of people stop and think about poverty issues and just what they want to see happen in Stanley," she said.
Many of the communities involved in Horizons have broadened their leadership base, started community endowments, engaged in beautification projects and published brochures or erected new signs to promote their towns. Other projects taken on have varied by community.
Anamoose started adult computer classes, and a community garden. It assisted a new farmers market and encouraged the senior citizens center to start a Sunday brunch to raise money and create more opportunities for eating out locally.
Bowdon resurrected a newspaper that had folded 86 years ago, publishing an issue distributed to 1,000 people across the country. Residents also started a community garden and opened a fitness center.
Cando's Horizons program backed a mill levy increase to keep the library open, which won voter support in June. It is exploring tourism possibilities.
Harvey started a youth mentoring program, worked with the Eagles to purchase a transport trailer for the food pantry and assisted entrepreneurs through Innovate North Dakota. The ambulance service and food pantry are working together to obtain a new building.
Maddock started an after-school program, formed a housing board and formed a community development board to hire a development director.
McKenzie County held a town hall meeting to address youth issues and has worked with the hospital, law enforcement and the museum on projects to improve career development, safety and tourism in the area.
New Town conducted a community survey, expanded community cleanup efforts and created partnerships to get groups working together.
Rock Lake developed a countywide informational map and revitalized its main street.
Rolette developed a walking trail, held a community block party, held an eBay training class and is working on business development.
Sheyenne started a community newsletter, began holding community fun nights, supported the opening of a new taxidermy shop and organized three existing groups into one nonprofit organization. A youth has been taking videos in town and putting them on the Internet on YouTube.
Stanley is addressing the need for child care and housing and set up a Young Professionals Network in the county.
Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates conducted a separate Horizons project with Mandaree, Parshall and Fort Totten that also finished June 30.
Horizon communities not only received expert assistance in strategizing and training leaders but they received financial assistance that totaled $10,000 each, provided by the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul, Minn.
Rolette has used some of its money to establish a walking trail. In some cases, communities are putting their cash awards into endowments.
Harvey has raised $40,000 for its foundation so far, said Kim Moen of the city's Horizons Committee. She said the Horizons project also provided leadership training to more than 100 people and helped start projects that the city had been wanting to see happen.
Alyce Heer of the Anamoose Horizons Committee said the town's endowment raised $23,000 of its $25,000 goal in a matter of months.
"We will continue on with the Horizons program, definitely," Heer said. "The main purpose was to decrease poverty and increase leadership, and I think it has."
In June, Anamoose residents put their first woman on the city board when Bonnie Dockter was elected in June, she said.
Horizons was worth the effort, Heer said. Anamoose would never have accomplished the things that it has without that boost, she said.
Lynette Flage, Horizons community leadership specialist at NDSU, said the program's success depends on the effort of the communities.
"Most of them realized they had to do this for themselves. Someone isn't going to come in and fix everything in their town. It was up to them," she said. "From this point on, it's really about stability. The communities, we hope, have enough leadership now and enough momentum going that they can sustain what they are doing."
A blog site at (www.north dakota.communityblogs.us) has given each participating community a chance to broadcast their accomplishments.
Flage said the blog site has had more than 100,000 hits from 117 countries. Within the site, more than 250,000 hits occurred as visitors looked around.
Some towns have been contacted by people in other parts of the country who have sought information and help with projects in their towns, Flage said.
