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

We are most proud of completing the program along with learning how to make all our arrows flow in the same direction.

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.

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.

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

At this time we have not sought any outside resources at this time for our projects due to the fact that we have discovered that other groups are trying to accomplish the same goals so we will be working in conjuction with them.  

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

Silver Valley Horizons is  supporting the Shoshone Co. Women’s Resource Center in opening a shelter for women & children escaping domestic violence situations. After this goal is accomplished we can hopefully work towards homeless and/or transitional housing as the community has neither of these either.

SV Horizons, Shoshone County Women’s Resource Center, and Velocity Business Training are working together to reach out to prominent members and organizations in the Silver Valley in hopes of opening a business incubator as well as provide entrepreneurial business & life skills training to the community.

Silver Valley Horizons has also joined with the SVEDC to work towards the goal of a Job Corps facility here in the Valley. the Community Resource Committee to complete an extensive community resource guide, as well as joining with Project Uplift since we both have the same goal of bettering our community.

Both of these are still in the works but progress is being made. Mountains do not spring up over night.

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.

Please let MJ 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…

What makes our community different from the one right down the road is the fact that the communities down the road are one in the same. The Silver Valley consists of 14 individual communities that when we come together we can accomplish a great many things.  It is a strength that we can capitilize on and a burden sometimes due to the fact that we don’t always act like one big happy community, there is still a little bit of the old school “you stay on your side of the line and I will stay on mine”.

We also have a lot in common with Sun Valley, we have the tourism, beautiful landscape, the year round recreation, 2 ski resorts, and the people who are finding it harder and harder to live here, due to the rising costs of property and everything else.

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.

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)?

I feel that one of the most important leadership traits that I have developed from participating in Horizons is teamwork. Old habits die hard though and it is something that I need to keep up on.

How has participation in the program changed you?

Participation in the program has changed me by helping me to succeed in learning how to keep my arrows going in the same direction. Also by reminding me to keep my eyes and mind open to new and different views from my own.

What about your community? Are there specific examples of things happening in your community that wouldn’t have happened without Horizons?

We were able to persevere and complete our Community Resource Book that will be printed and issued in the near future.  
• Bonus reflective question: How has the blogging experienced affected you? (please edit any inappropriate language, hahaha trust me, I feel your pain!!)

Since I have to edit my language, let’s just call it a “learning lesson”!!!!!

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

Presenter: Ann Kirkwood, MA, Director of Better Todays. Better Tomorrows. and Idaho Youth Suicide Prevention Project, Idaho

Lewiston: Lewis Clark State College, Corner of 4th and 9th Ave, NOTE: May 7, 14, and 21st

ONE CHILD IS REPORTED ABUSED OR NEGLECTED EVERY 35 SECONDS

EVEN IF YOU SUSPECT CHILD ABUSE, DO YOUR PART AND REPORT IT.

NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE HOTLINE 1-800-4-A-CHILD.

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?

What’s next in Horizons for us? Well it’s hard to say really except for lots of wonderful growth.

Here’s and update on our action teams:

Community Center is on hold for the moment due to planning and zoning issues. 

Trade School is about 5 years out. The SVEDC is working hard to bring in a Job Corps facility to the Silver Valley but they have not that long ago started the process and it doesn’t exactly happen over night.  

Community Resource Guide is almost done. We expect for all of our information to be together by the end of May and we then plan for distribution to be this summer.

Other “action items” that have come about are Silver Valley Horizons is  supporting the Shoshone Co. Women’s Resource Center in opening a shelter for women & children escaping domestic violence situations. After this goal is accomplished we can hopefully work towards homeless and/or transitional housing as the community has neither of these either.

SV Horizons, Shoshone County Women’s Resource Center, and Velocity Business Training are working together to reach out to prominent members and organizations in the Silver Valley in hopes of opening a business incubator as well as provide entrepreneurial business & life skills training to the community. The scope of this project is hard to say because there is so much room for growth.

Providing a space for the upcoming Youth Suicide Prevention Workshops, so that more people from our community can attend, due to the fact that travel outside of the valley, is expensive and hard to do for most of us.

The activities relate to the 3 legs of Horizons by the following.

      * The business incubator will provide ways of employment which will then in turn reduce poverty in the monetary definition. It will stimulate those people to become more involved in the communities. And will empower them to build a business on their own which will provide a self esteem boost that the benefits of there endeavors will continue to grow.

       * Youth Suicide Prevention pretty much explains itself I feel. When we are able to reach troubled youth and show them that they really do have a reason for being here, they gain a self worth which in turn will benefit the community in numerous ways because there is so much room for positive growth in them. 

      * Community Resource Guide allows people to know where to go in times of need and discover places they may not have been aware of before, with no barriers for them to overcome.

       * A shelter not only provides immediate relief from a traumatic situation, it also provides numerous avenues and support for the victims to be able to move forward  in a positive manner. Basic needs must be met (survival) before a person is able to thrive and having a shelter would provide this. I also think for the most part this is self explanatory. 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

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 words of wisdom would you give to a community just starting a program like Horizons?

Be patient, the Horizons Project has great potential, but it does take hard work and dedication.

• Words of warning?

Be prepared for people to be negative and not exactly see that  what you are doing has potential. 

• What kind of changes in their community and its leadership might they expect?

They can expect for leadership to come full circle because this program provides the tools necessary to accomplish whatever you feel needs to be done. This program I feel is also a self-esteem booster to those who are not used to being in the leadership positions. The changes they can expect in their communities depends on them, what they feel is needed, and how much work they are willing to put into it. If I had this to do all over again, I would.

• What kind of changes in themselves might they expect?

I feel that they can expect a huge amount of change if they are open to it. Like I said before, it is a self-esteem booster among other things. From my own personal experience, I feel that I have grown a lot. I have always been a leader, never a follower, however most times when I would come upon the “brick walls of life” I would back down because I would be unsure as to how to proceed, now I have no excuse for backing down. There is always a way to get done what you want to get done, you just have to step back and look at the bigger picture, you also have to be willing to ask for help, and you definantly have to be patient. I also tend to get really nervous when talking to groups, I think I always will, however it is not so bad now, and I feel that a lot of that has to do with being part of Horizons, and getting plenty of practice.

Scavenger Hunt Question:

• Which community’s chamber of commerce recently met with high school youth to work together to involve more youth in the community?

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

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John Maxwell

Or

Leadership for the Common Good: Tackling Public Problems in a Shared-Power World by Barbara Crosby and John Bryson

Reflective Questions: What does the phrase ‘living in poverty’ mean to you?

I feel that living in poverty means going without basic needs such as shelter, clothing, food, etc. It also means lacking productive relationships, support system, etc. It means not being able to help your “neighbors” (whatever your definition of neighbor may mean). It means knowing that something needs to be done and not having the “tools” to accomplish that. 

How has your definition of ‘poverty’ changed in the past year?

Yes I feel that it has. I always associated poverty with the monetary definition and I think that most people do until they are shown that poverty has a variety of definitions.   

Does your community think differently about poverty now? How can you tell?

It is really hard to say. I think that the people who participated in Study Circles, Leadership Plenty, etc for the most part grasp the idea of poverty meaning something else besides lack of money. I could tell by our discussions at the many meetings that we had.

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.