Idaho

These days the fastest growing group of business owners is women who use their entrepreneur spirits, leadership and creativity to start businesses. According  Luz Robles, director of the Zions Business Resource Center http://www.utahpolicy.com/brc/DirectorLuzRobles.jpg  to the Center for Women’s Business Research, in 2006, 7.7 million firms were either woman-owned or women held the majority share. Women account for 29.7 percent of all businesses in the U.S., a 42.3 percent increase since 1997. Women are having a direct impact in our national and state economy.

 Zions Bank is committed to working with women to make their dreams a reality by offering a series of micro-grants for women. The 2008 Zions Bank Smart Women Grant enables deserving women with hopes of starting a community-oriented business or project to have access to funding to make this a reality.

 Grants are open to female residents in both Utah and Idaho and are awarded in six different areas including small business start-up and expansion; child and elder care; community development; continuing education and teacher support; health and human services; and arts and culture. Community review panels will select the grant recipients.

Applications are available online at www.smartwomen.zionsbank.com and are due by July 31, 2008.

Some Idaho hunger statistics from the Idaho Food Bank:

–An average of 66,300 (14.6%) Idaho families worried they could not afford food (known as food insecurity) between 2002 and 2004. And 17,377 (3.7%) families had members who actually went hungry (food insecurity with hunger) during the same period. This makes Idaho the 8th hungriest state in the country.

–In another study, the US Department of Agriculture ranked Idaho the 4th worst hunger state and found that 4.5% (22,098) of Idaho households experienced hunger between 1999-2001. In its previous study, done between 1996-98, USDA rated Idaho in a tie for 25th. This descent, from 25th to 4th, was the second worst among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Only Utah’s decline was worse. (USDA: Household Food Security in the US, December 2002)

The Idaho Food Bank website has info on how to organize a food drive in your own community as well as other statistics and resources for your community and information about programs such as ‘Grow a Row’ (planting extra plants in your own garden to donate to food banks or other organizations).

Our winner from last week’s blog scavenger hunt / answer is….. Judi from UpRiver. Please visit their blog to read her answers (http://upriver.communityblogs.us/)

Judi gets to choose a book title from our community development library:
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets - John P. Kretzmann  or

Teaching the Commons: Place, Pride, and the Renewal of Local Schooling - Paul Theobald

“Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain.” A recent article in the Financial Times summarized research presented at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Research indicates “many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development.” For more information please read the article here (free but user must register) and this New York Times editorial (free access) that discusses the article. Another good article about the research findings is available here (free).

“Labels are for cans, not for children” states third grade teacher Valorie Lewis of Stigler, Oklahoma. Lewis overcame many childhood hardships growing up in severe poverty (including living in a horsetrailer for over a year) and she now works daily to instill a sense of worth and respect for others in her pupils in the high poverty school district she teaches in. Check out this inspiring article from USA Today here.

We have lots of interesting opportunities for Idaho Horizons Communities. Please check the Horizons Website!

The Study Circles Resource Center has a web article about 2 of our Horizons communities, Bonners Ferry and the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. Check out what your neighbors are up to! The website also talks about other study circles across the nation and the topics they are talking about (education, immigration, racial equality, police & community, etc.)

The University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences publication, Programs & People, has devoted its winter 2008 issue to poverty and programs that the college offers to work with individuals and communities dealing with the real world impacts of poverty. To read the articles (including one about Horizons), please visit the publication’s website.

From the Small Business Advocacy Small Business Profile of Idaho:

“Small businesses are the heart of Idaho’s economy. Research by the Office of Advocacy shows that small businesses create most of the nation’s net new jobs, and they bring dynamic ideas, innovative services, and new products to the marketplace. They account for almost all of the nation’s employer firms and generate half of non-farm private output. New business creation is key to a state’s ability to increase its gross state product, state personal income, and total state employment. This small business profile uses the most recent data available to demonstrate the valuable contributions that small businesses make to Idaho’s economic health.” Click to download the pdf.

For more information about starting and running a small business in Idaho, please visit the
Idaho Small Business Solutions webpage.

Dr. Rula Awwad-Rafferty’s University of Idaho Senior Interior Design students are working in several Horizons communities who have identified a community center as one of their vision/action items. The students will present their initial design concepts during a class presentation on Wednesday, November 14 from 2:30 – 5:30 at the UI campus. The students will also be sharing their initial concept designs with individual communities electronically.

The students will also host a final presentation/reception at the conclusion of the semester for all Horizons communities. The class is also researching best practices for community center design, funding and other related issues. The UI students will present their final designs and answering questions. We are still in the planning stages and will get more information to you shortly. The event is tentatively scheduled for the 2nd week in December. We’ll post more information here as soon as it’s available.

From the Idaho Food Bank Website

• Two of every three people who rely on the Foodbank are either children too young to work or seniors who have already worked all their lives. Specifically, in 2005, agencies supplied by The Idaho Foodbank served 25,081 unduplicated children, 10,049 senior citizens and 22,421 adults per month.
• More than 40% of households that receive food from the Foodbank currently have at least one person working. About half those work fulltime jobs
  

  .