CALS News

Oct 23, 2009

CONTACTS: Barbara Petty, Program Director, (208) 523-4007, bpetty@uidaho.edu

Written by Marlene Fritz

Horizons III Program Helps South-central and Southeastern Idaho Communities Expand their Horizons

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho—A year into University of Idaho Extension’s 18-month Horizons III program, 15 south-central and southeastern Idaho communities are expanding their leadership capacity and working towards making their rural towns appealing, inclusive and economically vibrant places. To reduce the poverty that undermines rural Idaho and transform their towns into places where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, they’re:

* developing community gardens, farmers’ markets, canning kitchens, movie festivals, bird watching tours, cross-cultural celebrations, hoedowns, historical societies, youth councils, and print and Web-based community-wide resource guides;

launching enrichment, education, business and language classes for adults; community centers for seniors and youth; and day cares, afterschool programs, summer lunch programs and classical music for kids;
sprucing up Main Street, implementing recycling and promoting homeowner pride,
improving their emergency preparedness and initiating Neighborhood Watch programs;
and even starting on-line newspapers, developing walking and bicycling trails, designing service-bartering Web sites and investigating job opportunities in alternative energy.
“I am just so impressed and excited by what their future is going to look like,” said Barbara Petty, a University of Idaho Extension educator and program director. “This has mobilized people to get things done in their communities that they’ve wanted to get done for a long time.”

Extension’s Horizons III program is a partnership with the Minnesota-based Northwest Area Foundation and succeeds two previous Horizons programs that served 28 northern Idaho communities during 2003-08. Eligible communities must have populations under 5,000 and poverty rates of 10 percent or more. South-central and southeastern Idaho participants include Albion, American Falls, Ashton, Challis, Eden, Georgetown, Hazelton, Heyburn, Lava Hot Springs, Menan, Ririe, Roberts and Salmon as well as the Butte County towns of Arco and Moore and the Lincoln County towns of Shoshone, Dietrich and Richfield.

Petty estimates that six thousand Idahoans have participated in Horizons III study circles, leadership training, community visioning rallies and action teams—including three people in every community who have become LeadershipPlenty® trainers and altogether 124 who are now Everyday Democracy study-circle facilitators. Each community will receive $10,000 in grant money from the Northwest Area Foundation and access to such additional training as grant writing and nonprofit administration.

Annika Davey, who co-chairs Ririe’s Horizons III efforts, said the program is “bringing back a sense of community and bringing in trainings and classes that we would otherwise not have been able to afford.” A native, Davey recalls when Ririe had “a lot of community activities and you’d see people helping each other out. I wanted my kids to have some of the same things that I had. In a way, this is coming home again.”

In Albion, mayoral candidate and Horizons IIII chairman Heather Mortensen calls the program “awesome.” Not only has it provided an opportunity for her community’s newcomers and old-timers to become better acquainted, but Mortensen hopes it will help them bridge differences and unite towards positive changes.

Magic Valley newcomer ViAnn Aristizabal is leading joint Hazelton-Eden efforts to assemble information on poverty-busting resources so community members “don’t have to embarrass themselves and call 14 different people to find out where to get help.” Horizons III team members will also develop lists of products residents can buy locally and neighbors who have skills for hire.

“We have a lot of people who are really struggling,” said Aristizabal. “If we can bond together to fight poverty, that’s a big thing.”

“There are so many directions we can go,” said Michelle Taylor of Eden. “That’s because there are so many people stepping forward who have wanted to do things but haven’t known how.”

Petty expects that “collaboration, cooperation and a desire to work together to improve their communities” will be a lasting benefit after Horizons III formally concludes on April 30, 2010. “The relationships that people build within their communities will foster more growth, more sense of community, more pride—and will make their communities more desirable places for their youth to return to raise their families.”

“Rural Idaho is a way of life,” Petty said, “and when rural Idaho does better, so does the rest of Idaho.”