Horizons 3 communities will participate in blog trainings held across the state in January. Here are the locations and additional information for communities:
Click here for the training flyer with specific details.
Many leaders from our Horizons communities gathered in Pierre to be trained as LeadershipPlenty facilitators. These volunteers will return to their communities to deliver LeadershipPlenty in the next phase of the Horizons project. We met lots of great community leaders and we are confident that they are ready to share what they learned.
Thanks to our trainers, Gwen Whiting and Rachelle Vettern!
There is so much to be learned from other communities who have participated in Horizons. As much as we have learned and accomplished in South Dakota, the same has been happening in the other states involved in the project. Here is a link to the North Dakota group’s version of the tabloid, celebrating the successful completion of Horizons II in North Dakota. Great reading if you have some time.
A great big Horizons welcome goes out to Kelly Rasmussen! The ink is just drying on the paperwork to be able to add Kelly to the Horizons staff in South Dakota. Her previous position within the Governor’s Office of Economic Development means that she brings a wealth of skills and experience that will be a fantastic resource for all of our Horizons communities.
Kelly will be the community coach for Hyde County, Reliance and Kadoka in Horizons III and she will also be helping with alumni support for some of our Horizons II communities. Welcome Kelly!
Thanks to Martha for sharing these recent photos from the Study Circles Training in Aberdeen–I do question her photography skills a bit though, but we can forgive a few fuzzy pictures.
SDSU Extension is excited to announce that 15 new communities have been chosen to participate in the next round of the Horizons project.The communities taking part in this round of the Horizons Project include Big Stone City, Box Elder, Eden/Roslyn, Flandreau, Gregory, Gayville/Volin, Greater Big Stone Lake area, which includes the towns of Corona, Wilmot, and lake residents, Harding County, Hill City, Hyde County, Kadoka, Kimball, Leola, and Reliance. In addition, a site on the Rosebud Indian Reservation will be part of the project.
NDSU and SDSU Cooperative Extension will be holding a joint Study Circles organization and facilitation meeting in Aberdeen on September 8-9. The training will be the first official meeting for our Horizons III communities. (An announcement will be coming soon on who those 15 communities are!) National trainers from Everyday Democracy will be teaching community members how to recruit participants and organize their community Study Circles. Horizons III will be off to a running start this fall!
SDSU Extension is in the process of selecting up to 15 new communities to be part of the next round of Horizons. The communities will jump right into work this fall with an initial Study Circles training to occur in early September. Stay tuned for more news…
Celebrating 21 Horizons II Successes is a new publication from the SDSU Cooperative Extension Service. This 8 page tabloid highlights the many successes documented by the 21 communities across South Dakota that recently completed the Horizons II project.
To read more about the great things happening in South Dakota communities click here.
The SDSU Community Innovation & Leadership staff and some Horizons community members met recently in Brookings to help map the future of community work for the Cooperative Extension Service. Here’s a photo of the group.
Back Row L to R: Joanne Haase, South District Extension Director/CIL Liaison; David Olson, Community Coordinator; Harvey Donnelly, Estelline Horizons; Mary Livingston, Whitewood Horizons; Kent Olson, Philip Horizons; Kari Fruechte, Horizons Project Director; Dan Oedekoven, Community Coordinator; Jannine Pahl, Marshall County Intern; Anthony Shaheen, Extension Educator - CIL; Connie Smith, Montrose Horizons.
Front Row L to R: Karla Trautman, SDSU Extension Specialist; Martha Landes, Community Coordinator; Cheryl Jacobs, Extension Educator - CIL & Community Coordinator; Karen Pearson, CES Associate Director; Darah Darrington, Extension Educator - CIL.
Thanks to Mary for sharing the photo and a big thanks to our Horizons community members who shared their time with us and gave us great input about their experiences and how we can work to better serve them in the future.
Wayne Hopkins of Arlington arranges plants and at his merchant table at the Estelline Farmers Market grand opening. (Photo by Joe O’Sullivan)Published: Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:01 AM CDT
Gathered amongst a bonanza of produce, flowers, knickknacks and gourds, neighbors assembled Friday evening to celebrate and shop at the grand opening of the Estelline Farmers Market. The farmers market was held at Gazebo Park on the corner of Main Street and Route 28 from 4 to 7 p.m.
Eight vendors represented local farmers, artists and residents as tables were laden with alfalfa, tomatoes, eggs, odds-and-ends and even decorative gourds. Buyers and sellers alike munched on celebratory slices of cake and communed with friends. (more…)
I wanted to take some time to highlight some of the recent stories from our communities across the state. There is so much to be learned from other communities and often communities have the same issues they are trying to find solutions to. You know the old saying, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel…here are some examples of great work happening in our Horizons communities:
Murdo: Their newly formed volunteer program is getting started. A great way to help those in your community who aren’t able to do tasks themselves. Keep building that social capital! Read more about it at http://murdo.communityblogs.us/2008/05/29/volunteer-program/
Philip: Philip is looking at its assets, including the numerous things that all of their social organizations do in the community. An ice cream social will be used to highlight the work done by groups, to encourage new volunteers and to celebrate community spirit. Great idea Philip! Read more at: http://philip.communityblogs.us/2008/06/01/celebration-of-community-spirit/
Sanborn Central: A community wide rummage sale will be held, they got donations of bags from local grocery stores and donations of rummage sale items from the community. Proceeds of the sale go to help people in poverty in their community. Read more at: http://sanborncentral.communityblogs.us/2008/06/08/horizons-rummage-sale/
These are just a few of the great stories shared on the blog in the first part of June. We hope that communities will continue to blog after Horizons is officially done so we can see the great work you are doing in your communities continue.
It’s been an amazing journey through Horizons II, and we are almost to the finish line! Communities are preparing for the June 30th official end to Horizons and the celebration events planned for late June and July.
Keep sharing your stories and progress on action items on the blogs. Your blog posts can help us tell your story to NWAF and help you earn the full $10,000 reward at the end.
Here’s a photo of the group that attended Northwest Area Foundation’s Grassroots and Groundwork conference in Minneapolis this past week. There were a total of 21 people from South Dakota Horizons who were either staff or community members.
We heard several keynote speakers and chose to attend a variety of break out sessions on poverty reduction and learned how other communities across the nation are doing things in their community. Thanks to Martha for making us take the photo (even though we all moaned and groaned about it) and thanks to Mary from Whitewood for remembering to bring her camera and sharing the photo with us.
Tyndall will be holding a Policy Forum on the topic Poverty on Wednesday, April 16th. Click here for a poster with information on attending: policyforumtyndall.doc
The event is free and open to the public. Horizons community members can also have their travel to attend this event reimbursed.
Mike and Trevor at the Rural Life Census Data Center at SDSU have been working on a new publication about community development. They have given us some statistics about the regional market size needed to suport local business development and retention.
Interesting reading and good information for your community as you make decisions about economic development. Click the graphic to follow the link to the SDSU Coomunity Innovation & Leadership publications page.
Visit their website at http://sdrurallife.sdstate.edu/ for more information.
There was a great article in the Rapid City Journal this week about our Horizons I and Horizons II communities. Click here to read the article.
Here is a second article that was also printed in the Journal. Click here to read this article.
Estelline was recently featured in a news story in the Brookings Register. Great job Estelline! Read the story here.
If other communities have been a recent news feature let us know so we can highlight it here and share the great work you are doing.
The Frederick Horizons group was recently featured on the front page of the Aberdeen American News talking about their plans for the Secret Garden.
The Secret Garden is a project that started as an idea in Study Circles. The Frederick group hopes to make some big improvements in the next few years, to make the building a unique community asset.
Way to go Frederick!! Click here to read more…
Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:16 PM CST
ESTELLINE — The Horizons program in Estelline recently released a finalized version of its strategic plan for the community. After surveying area residents, the group decided to focus on four areas: community coordination, community clean up and development, family activities and extended education.
Included in the community coordination plans are a welcome wagon and a community cable access channel.
“We are looking into the public access channel to see if there is some way of doing a short area range broadcast system… hopefully over the next couple of months the welcome wagon will be ready,” said Horizons member David Ebbers. (more…)
Estelline was featured in a recent news article in the Watertown Public Opinion…
Estelline plans farmer’s market
Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008 11:15 AM CST
ESTELLINE — The Estelline Horizons Program is organizing a farmer’s market in the area that will open this year. A committee has been formed and volunteers are still needed.Area residents interested in the farmer’s market are encouraged to attend a farmer’s market workshop at the Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory on the South Dakota State University campus in Brookings.To register for the workshop, log on to www.downtownbrookings.com and look under the events section.
REGIONAL COLLABORATIONS & COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
Mon. Jan. 28, 2008
Mitchell Technical Institute, 6:30 pm
Free Supper
7:00 pm - Forming Regional Partnerships - Stories from Horizons I Participants from Timber Lake, Isabel and Dupree
7:45 pm - Discussion & Networking
8:15 pm BREAK and time to network
8:30 pm - Forming A Community Foundation Noel Hamiel, SD Community Foundation talks about the advantages to forming and maintaining a local community foundation
9:15 pm - Closing Any Horizons or non-Horizons community members are invited to attend. Spread the word and bring a carload! If you have Q’s, call or email Kari: 688-4946 or fruechte.kari@ces.sdstate.edu
Please RSVP for supper by January 25, 2008.
Scotland’s Horizons project was featured in the Yankton Press & Dakotan this past week. The story including some great quotes from several community members, (Chad & Erin O., Peggy S. Senator Frank Kloucek, Lorrie S.) and SDSU’s Kari Fruechte and Dave Olson. Read the story here:
The Northwest Area Foundation also took notice–each week the delivery organizations of the 8 states involved in the Horizons project get information via a website called CommunityZero. Scotland’s story was highlighted this week from NWAF.
Area towns entering ‘blogosphere’
By Kristin Marthaler, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, December 14, 2007 12:45 PM CST
SISSETON — In an effort to keep the state’s smaller communities linked together and growing, the Horizons program has made a website dedicated to small town happenings through a blog.
Horizons is a program dedicated to bettering a community by teaching and giving it the tools it needs to succeed. One of the suggested options for smaller communities was a blog. A way to stay connected, share information and encourage those who succeed in the community. (more…)
Tyndall’s new youth center was a recent story in the Yankton Press & Dakotan. Read the story here:
Tyndall Center is Center of Attention
There were lots of great quotes from Horizons participants, it is a great example of how a project can go from a great idea to an actual operating youth center.
The Northwest Area Foundation also took notice–each week the delivery organizations of the 8 states involved in the Horizons project get information via a website called CommunityZero. Tyndall’s story was highlighted this week from NWAF.
Great job Tyndall!
