Idaho

Congrats to Judy of Cascade, she’s our weekly winner!  Thanks to all the new bloggers who’ve signed up.  If you’re part of the steering committee, hopefully these questions will help you work on the final report that is due June 30. Please let us know if you have any questions about the blog or the report.

There is a Blogging Handbook available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks to MJ for writing this beginner’s guide! Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, June 3 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles… I will be at a conference May 27-30 so this will give you a whole extra week…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:

•  Of all the things you have done during the last 18 months in the Horizons program, of what are you most proud? 

Scavenger Hunt Question:

·         Which Idaho Horizons community is working with the University of Idaho to help with their vision to “rebuild a community center to assist local families fight back against the ravages of poverty. They are looking to the future when they will have a center that provides central business offices for the city, a town library and public computers with Internet accessibility, expanded recreational facilities for youth and adults, a hall for future leadership and life skills training.”

The winner will receive a copy of the book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People will Follow You by John C. Maxwell.

Congrats to Andrea of Grangeville, she’s our weekly winner!

Thank you all for the interesting responses about your community and what makes it ‘unique’ to you compared to other rural communities in Idaho.

I grew up in a small farming community in Idaho near the Utah border and I still think about it every day, the views and colors and smells and intense farm work we did (pulling rye, driving around and around in a tractor for 12 hours a day, herding cattle, etc) helped shape my life and world view. It’s that sense of place that helps define who we are and how we relate to the world around us.

I hope you’re all getting comfortable and familiar with the blogging process. Mary, MJ and I thank you for all the time and hard work you’ve devoted to this part of Horizons and know it’s just a small part of what you are all doing in your communities.

Please let MJ (merijoz@uidaho.edu) or me (dgray@uidaho.edu) know if we can help you with any questions you might have about blogging.

A ‘how to blog’ handbook is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page…

Reflective Questions:

As we near the ‘end’ of this phase of Horizons, take a moment to look back on the past 18 months to answer these questions.

1.      Has your community sought any additional resources outside of Horizons for your projects? 

2.      How has your community partnered with communities and/or organizations beyond Horizons?

Scavenger Hunt Question:  Which Horizons community has an organization sponsoring a ‘Volcano Breakfast’ and what IS a Volcano Breakfast?

This week’s winner will receive a copy of:

One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All / Mark Robert Rank

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by May 20 (midnight) and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Congrats to Christine of Kooskia, she’s our weekly winner! Thank you to all who have recently signed up and started blogging. Please let MJ (merijoz@uidaho.edu) or me know if we can help you with any questions you might have about blogging.

Reminder: MJ has created a ‘how to blog’ handbook that is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks MJ!

Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by May 6 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:

What is something unique about your Horizons community that you’d like to share with the rest of the world? What makes your community different from the one right down the road? Is it a strength your community can capitalize on or a burden you have to bear?  Or both? For example, Sun Valley has the beautiful landscape, ski resorts, etc. but the tourism industry has also left behind many local people who are now unable to afford to live in the town they work in…

Scavenger Hunt Question: This week the scavenger hunt is a simple assignment. Find an entry on one of the Horizons community blogs (or even your own blog) and leave a comment to the author. It’s fun to give and get feedback about things we’re doing and talking about.

This week’s winner will receive:

The working poor: invisible in America by David K. Shipler

And

Building Communities From the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight.

Congrats to Mountain Mama of Kendrick/Juliaetta, she’s our weekly winner! Even though she took me to task for forgetting about those of you in remote areas with only dial-up internet access… she persevered after many grueling hours on the scavenger hunt! I will definitely keep in mind your technology limits in the future…

MJ has created a ‘how to blog’ handbook that is now available on our Horizons website at http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/coaches.htm at the very top of the page… Thanks MJ!

Also, for those communities that may be looking for a little more training, please contact MJ at merijoz@uidaho.edu / 208-885-8949 to see how she can help you.

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 29 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:
• Looking back, what is one (or more) skill or leadership trait you have developed from participating in Horizons (maybe from Study Circles or LeadershipPlenty or from the hands on work going on in your communities right now)? How has participation in the program changed you? What about your community? Are there specific examples of things happening in your community that wouldn’t have happened without Horizons?
• Bonus reflective question: How has the blogging experienced affected you? (please edit any inappropriate language, hahaha trust me, I feel your pain!!)

Scavenger Hunt Question:
• Which of the Idaho Horizons community blogs has information about April being Child Abuse Awareness month? This website also provides information about Youth Suicide Prevention.

The winner will receive:

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World: Building Your Resources for a Better Life by Philip E. DeVol
And

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, et al

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 22 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for one of our book titles…

NOTE: Please enter your answers as either a comment to the original question OR as a brand new entry on your blog so that the answers are easy for people to find.

Reflective Questions:

• What’s next in Horizons for your community? Are your Action Teams planning activities in the next 2 months? How do those activities relate to the 3 legs of Horizons: Poverty reduction, Leadership Development and Community Mobilization?

Scavenger Hunt Question:

• Let’s broaden our scavenger hunt world a little… Of the other Horizons states, which one has interesting information about using Chicken Tractors to help maintain community gardens? Check out the link section of the Idaho Horizons Blog that lists the blog addresses for Montana, NorthDakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa Horizons. Feel free to explore and be inspired by other community groups just like yours!
  

This week’s winner will receive a copy of each of the following books:
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler

Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-By World: Building Your Resources for a Better Life by Philip E. DeVol

Rules: Post your answers on your blogsite by Tuesday, April 8 by midnight and be entered in the drawing for a fabulous prize.

Reflective Questions: What does the phrase ‘living in poverty’ mean to you? How has your definition of ‘poverty’ changed in the past year? Does your community think differently about poverty now? How can you tell?

Scavenger Hunt Question: Which community (in partnership with ComBAT (Community Based Access to Technology)) will be having a FREE concert on April 23, 2008?

This week’s winner will get to choose ONE of the following books:

One Nation, Underprivileged, Why American Poverty Affects Us All / Mark Robert Rank

or

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community / Robert D. Putnam.

Please visit the Coeur d’Alene Reservation Horizons blog, they’re doing a great job of sharing their community projects, calls for assistance for families in need and personal feedback about training they’ve attended. Thanks for your hard work, we appreciate it!

The Northwest Area Foundation announced winners of the 2008 Great Strides Awards given to communities working creatively to reduce poverty. Four communities: Elk City, Idaho; Glendive, Montana; Roseburg, Oregon and Eagle Butte, South Dakota. were each awarded $100,000.

Elk City, Idaho -- Framing Our Community, Inc. (FOC) (Idaho County,
poverty rate 15 percent; focus area population 15,542) Bounded by the
rustic Nez Perce National Forest, Elk City has suffered job loss and
population decline with the downturn in the timber industry. Rather than
consider the forest a moribund resource, town leaders did what may be
surprising: they turned to diseased, dead and downed trees as a new source
of prosperity. State and federal land management agencies, tribal
governments and private land owners are partnering with the nonprofit
organization, Framing Our Community (FOC), Inc., to remove ravaged timber
resulting in hazardous fuels reduction and forest restoration. The
long-range vision includes a small business incubator dedicated to creating
value-added products out of the discarded wood. Switching from an
extraction-based economy to a restoration-based economy has created new
jobs for Idaho County, which the Bureau of Economic Analysis had previously
identified as an area with a low income and high unemployment.

For information, please visit this link.

Cheryl Jacobs, South Dakota Horizons Community Coach, has created a section on their state blog that has helpful blogging tips for beginners and advanced bloggers. Check out the “Helpful Hints” such as:

Adding color  –  Assigning Roles  —   Adding community RSS Feeds — Adding Opinion Polls  — Off line photo editor  —   Moderating comments — and MORE.

From KnowledgePlex Week in Review: A Poverty, Work and Opportunity Task Force appointed by Providence, R.I., mayor David Cicilline, has outlined ways to help low-income people find pathways out of poverty, reported The Providence Journal. Among the recommendations: advise low-income families to use regular furniture stores instead of rent-to-own stores; keep a check on high-cost lenders and check-cashing businesses; expand adult education; and, work harder to prevent teen pregnancies. Cicilline is acting on some of the Task Force’s recommendations but has not committed to all of them. Meanwhile, in Chicago, 430 low-income tenants at the former Henry Horner Homes have been enrolled in the experimental Pathways to Rewards program, said the Chicago Tribune. The core idea: find ways to reward positive behavior instead of exclusively punishing negative behavior. Under the program, parents earn points by looking for a job, paying rent on time, and being involved with their children’s school. Children earn points for keeping a clean room and getting to school on time. One point equals one dollar, with other kinds of assistance-new clothes, for example-also offered (and funded by private grants). In New York, a similar program offers as much as $5,000 to poverty-level families who “do right” by their kids.

Here’s a fun article about Spain’s 95 year old Amelia Lopez, her blog and her newfound stardom as a cybercelebrity. It’s a great example of the power of a blog and an inspiration to those who think they’re “too old” or “nobody wants to hear what I have to say.

“

In the article, Amelia says “When I saw my grandson using the Internet, it caught my attention. I said to myself ‘What’s this? You can find out about anything. I want an Internet!’”

Her weblog is available here.

Last week we finished blog training with Anita Raddatz and her assistant Bill. We had lots of happy people leave the training with smiles on their face, even those who had very little experience with computers. Thanks Anita and Bill and NWAF.