I do not know if anyone else put the crew up that completed the Leadership Plenty Series last fall with the “Can Do” T-shirts but I have one to share with the group! Again, since I attended the blog traning, I am trying to catch up by sharing some photos.
I learned how to blog this week at the blog training in Estelline from Cheryl and am sharing photos of the group that attended the program last September in Huron. Harvey was part of the panel discussion of communities attending and represented the Estelline Horizons group extremely well.
The next monthly meeting of the Estelline Area Horizons will be Tuesday March 18th at 6:30 p.m., at the Trails Edge. Everyone is invited to hear updates on current projects or to become involved in various projects or bring forth ideas. Monthly meetings are scheduled for the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Please plan on attending. For further information, please feel free to contact David Ebbers at davide@reliabank.com or 873-2261.
Thanks to all who attended the blog training on Tuesday night! I know we went through a lot of information in a short amount of time but I hope that you all feel comfortable in doing basic posting. The best way to hone your blogging skills is to use them! I’d love to see some new posts in the next few days from each of you. Thanks to Karl for “cleaning up” things today from our training. Thanks for all your work Estelline!
Join the SD Extension Educator specialist for computer training and access to this blog site as an editor, contributor, or administrator. Class Tuesday March 11th at the High School Library from 6:30-9:00p.m. with take home materials and sign on at the site. Snacks and baby-sitting available. No beverages in the library though, sorry. See you there!
Gardening and Selling Saturday March 22, 2008 1-3 p.m. at the Estelline Community Center, 219 Main Street
Rhoda Burrows ( you know her from Garden Line ) is coming to help us get ready for summer growing and markets.
Permaculture - an IntroductionSaturday March 29, 2008 1-3p.m. at the Estelline Community Center, 219 Main Street
Sharing from down-under, 4 locals recently returned from Australia offer good news on how each of us can do something about providing our food, shelter, energy, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Watch for more and longer sessions later this spring.
BLOG TRAINING Tuesday evening March 11, 2008 6:30-9 p.m. at the school ; bring laptops
Cheryl Jacobs, specialist educator in blogging whom you also know as our Horizons Community Coordinator, will help get writers, story-tellers, minutes-takers, as well as already tech savy individuals started on the Horizons blog. We are wanting some synergy here between folks of all ages.
Estelline prepares for next 125
Posted: Monday, Feb 25th, 2008
BY: Ashley Allgaier
Estelline marked 125 years as a community in 2007, and at this milestone residents are looking to the “Horizons.” Horizons is a community leadership program that helps small, rural towns help themselves. The Northwest Area Foundation helps communities in eight states by working through local institutions, such as the South Dakota State University Extension Office. The Estelline Historic Society was approached with the project and prepared a proposal to join the program. Estelline was one of 21 South Dakota communities chosen in fall 2006.
70 involved in process
Since then, the project has enveloped Estelline, and the community now has more than 70 volunteers involved in the process and several improvement projects already under way.
A vacant building on Main Street was renovated by volunteers, and crews are now awaiting warmer weather to complete construction. After a new cement floor is poured, the building will become a technology center with high-speed wireless Internet and as many as six computers for public space, said David Ebbers, Estelline resident and a member of the strategic planning committee.
When finished, the new technology center will contain a community bulletin board and can also be used as a meeting space for small groups. Future plans might also include community computer classes.
Horizons funds were also used to start a program already earning returns. The city purchased a trailer to collect aluminum cans to be recycled, with money generated used by the city for other projects.
It only took two months to fill the trailer the first time, which earned $229 for the recycled cans, Ebbers said. The money was given to the Estelline Food Pantry for distribution at Christmas time.
The trailer is nearly full of cans again, indicating that it’s possible for the town to keep up the pace and earn roughly $200 every two months.
The Estelline Food Pantry is also a target for improvement in the community. With increased awareness of the impacts of poverty, the city was able to supply a better location for the food bank, he added. Grant money also purchased a freezer for the food pantry, which already had a refrigerator.
Going green
A site has also been plotted for the community garden, a project Linda Svec has been working on as part of the “green committee.”
Access to water and a garden shed with tools is already on site, purchased with Horizons grant money. When the ground thaws, it will be tilled and prepared for a spring planting.
Some of the harvest will become value-added produce at a new commercial kitchen, Svec said. An example she gave was fresh strawberries made into jam or a pie; locally processing the garden’s fruits and vegetables in the regulated environment of the commercial kitchen.
Svec and the green committee are also organizing a farmers’ market to provide local access to a market. The lack of access to market and inability to move value-added products is actually part of the definition of poverty, Svec explained.
The mission of the Horizons program is to reduce poverty in small rural communities. Doing so addresses not only a lack of money, but also an isolated market.
Battling poverty
The community garden, food pantry, commercial kitchen and farmer’s market projects all link together to work against poverty, Svec said. Produce grown at the community garden will be given to the food pantry, sold at the farmer’s market or converted into value-added products in the commercial kitchen. Value-added items will also be available at the food pantry and farmer’s market.
The idea is to attack poverty in several ways, by helping raise local incomes, using local sources for those who need help, giving people skills, attracting activity to the community, and creating local jobs.
Improvement projects for the food pantry, technology center, can trailer and community gardening site all were started with grant funds from Horizons. The program gives out chunks of the total fund at different steps in the process, Ebbers said. The idea is to keep people involved and looking for more grants and partnerships that are available.
Arlington used a similar program a few years ago that took on community improvement through leadership training.
Building local leadership
The First District Association of Local Governments, based in Watertown, offered free leadership classes to communities, and Arlington, as well as De Smet and Clark, took the group up on the deal.
In the summer of 2005, Arlington identified three top issues: Community betterment and beautification, developing affordable housing, and attracting new and strengthening existing businesses. The top priorities were identified based on resident input at community meetings and an outside assessment by the South Dakota Rural Development Council.
Outcomes included the formation of a chamber of commerce, community beautification of the south entrance to Arlington and new housing.
“There were a lot of positive steps that came out of that assessment and movement in that direction since,” said Randy Jencks, an Arlington resident who was involved in the meetings. First District sponsored leadership classes held weekly in Arlington using the LeadershipPlenty training system.
Horizons 18-month process
Activity under way in Estelline is thanks to the Northwest Area Foundation working through the SDSU Extension Office to present the Horizons program. Horizons is an 18-month program with five required segments, one of which is LeadershipPlenty training.
Both programs and communities work toward a goal of community betterment. First District’s approach with Arlington encompassed leadership training, assessment of community assets and identification of improvements
Before Estelline volunteers could get to the LeadershipPlenty stage they first had to organize a base of volunteers, take time to understand poverty, form connections with other communities and conduct community study circles. Next is LeadershipPlenty training, and a community visioning process where residents put together an asset-based strategic plan that leads to community action.
Action has already been taken in several projects, and attention is turning to organizing children’s programs, family activities and community events. That focus has gained a new group of volunteers – organizers of the town’s 125th anniversary celebration.
Need ‘kid focus’
Svec said the study circles identified a need to develop something for local kids. With a majority of parents working outside the community, some children are home alone after school and during summer vacation.
The technology center, community garden and commercial kitchen are all possible locations for children’s activities, Svec said. She sees the opportunity for kids to pick up practical skills doing intergenerational activities with adult volunteers.
According to Ebbers, Estelline is also taking a page from Flandreau, working toward establishing a satellite location of a Boys & Girls Club.
The strategic planning committee has also set out long-term goals of increasing housing, creating a multi-generational center and organizing ongoing community celebrations.
Contact Ashley Allgaier at aallgaier@brookingsregister.com.
The Estelline Area Horizons project would like to invite the area community to the Estelline High School on January 25 for a Free Whopper Feed from 5:00 to 7:00 pm prior to the Estelline boys’ basketball game. We would like to share the Community Strategic Plan that has been developed with help from the surveys completed by community members over the last several months. Should you not be able to attend and wish to receive a plan, please contact Reliabank Dakota at 873-2261 for a copy.
estelline-strategic-plan-final-version.doc
Working Draft – December 28, 2007 The finalized version of Estelline’s strategic plan will be available next week. Here is the working draft of the plan. Suggestions are most welcome!
Introduction
We define community as all residents in and around Estelline. If you are reading this you are part of the community. Throughout this document when we refer to Estelline, we mean the city residents, rural residents, and the surrounding area including Dempster and Lake Poinsett. (more…)
Estelline Horizons learned a new skill to increase communication - blogging. This will prove to be a worthwhile skill to open more communication, especially during those long winter months. As community members are huddled in their homes, they can still turn to their computers, blog, and continue to make plans to reduce poverty in their community.