Kooskia, ID

QED a private, research and evaluation-consulting practice that is working within the Horizon’s program conducting panel interviews for the past 2 years has selected Linda Martin of Kooskia as one of the winning panelists. The prize, a charitable donation of $500 for participating in the Horizons panel study interviews will be going to an organization called Communities Creating Connections.

Communities Creating Connections is  the non-profit organization that founded the Kooskia Technology Center. Under their guidance the tech center offers an array of services to underserve citizens of the Kooskia region.

Vincent Martinez, site coordinator states, “I am honored to be selected and to give this money to the Kooskia Technology Learning Center for volunteer staff stipend. Communitites Creating Connections (CCC) is the non-profit who sponsors such a great program. Thank you.”

For more information about Communities Creating Connections or the Clearwater Valley Outreach Center call Martinez at the Clearwater Valley Outreach Center (208) 926-7085. 

Kamiah, ID - Upper Clearwater Community Foundation is pleased to announce the Kamiah Pool Scholarship Project. This scholarship program is funded by a grant from the Inland Northwest Community Foundation.

The purpose of the Pool Scholarship Project is to afford families within the Kooskia and Kamiah school service areas the opportunity to enjoy the community pool regardless of their economic status. The recipients of the scholarships, as a season pass holder, will be entitled to daily access to the pool, family swim, lap swim, night swim, teen swim and other pool activities as well as one free swimming lesson class.

The Pool Scholarship Project will provide 162 low/moderate income families with scholarships to attend the Kamiah city pool during the 2008 season. Scholarship applications will be distributed May 22 through the Kooskia and Kamiah schools and will be available at Davis Communications at on Hwy 12. Applications will be accepted on Tuesday, May 27 beginning at 6:30 p.m. on a first come, first served basisat the Kamiah Welcome Center located at 518 Main Street. When completed applications are dropped off proof of income such as 3 months of pay stubs or 2007 tax return or summary statement from the unemployment office; proof of residency such as a utility bill; and social security cards or birth certificates will be required to verify eligibility. This information is required for all household members.

The scholarships will be given on a first come, first served basis and those awarded will be notified by mail. Having access to the pool is important to the community in preventing drownings in the Clearwater River. The family pass will create an avenue for the families to play together throughout the summer. We are expecting families to bond, build community connections, have physical activity for children, participate in alternative activities for youth and adults and have recreational opportunities with access to a safe and supervised environment during the summer months.

The Life Center has stepped forward to contribute to the project as well. They will provide busing from Stites and Kooskia to the Kamiah Pool two days a week during the summer months. More details will be released as information becomes available. Christine McNall, project director states “This an exciting beginning of a new scholarship program for youth activities in the area. This very generous grant from Inland Northwest Community Foundation has allowed us new momentum in giving scholarships to area youth who would like to participate in community activities but do not have the means to do so.” Although KYRA has given scholarships in the past this fund will enable youth access to more youth activities. If you would like to donate to the new youth activity scholarship fund please send your contributions to UCCF noting scholarship fund on your check. You may earmark your donation for KYRA, Pool Passes, or other.

The address is U.C.C.F. - PO Box 73, Kamiah, ID 83536. 

“It is truly wonderful to see our community come together with projects such as this. To afford families in the Clearwater Valley access to the pool is exciting. The scholarships are widely needed and I think we will see more people at the pool enjoying the hot summer days. I, for one, am grateful to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation for such a wonderful gift. I hope we can come together and continue the scholarship project next year with local fundraisers.” – Christine McNall 

 “I think that the pool scholarships will provide a great opportunity for our area youth to be able to swim in the pool daily if they choose. I also feel that the scholarships will help the KAP summer program due to the fact that we require children who are older enough to be in the big pool to have a season pass so that we are able to take the children to the pool and this is an additional financial burden on some families. I just think that our community and the area communities will benefit all the way around. Good job and thank you for your hard work for the community.” -Vickie Jackson, Kamiah After-school Program Coordinator  

“The Save the Pool Committee is extremely pleased with the receipt of this grant.  Not only will it help 150 local families, it will help to ensure the pool stays open another year.  It goes to show what good things can be accomplished when we all work together as a team.  I hope to see the team effort continue.” – Sharlene Johnson, Save the Pool Committee member.

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The Events Planning Training class that took place at the Kooskia Community Center on Thursday, April 24th, was attended by people in many communities. Not only did we have people from Kooskia, Stites, and Kamiah, but we had someone come all the way from Troy! Carol Gibler did a wonderful job teaching a step-by-step method for planning events. She shared her skills and experience with the class and gave out some helpful handouts for everyone to take and use as they plan their own events.

The Blog training sponsored by Kooskia Horizons on April 18th at the Tech Center was attended by 5 local residents. One of them has already signed on as an author to this blog. We look forward to her blogs and encourage others to come aboard as well. Happy Blogging Carol!

The most valuable trait that I have gained through the Horizons program is the ability to ask others for input, assistance or opinion. Creating conversations can turn to action in no time. Learning to facilitate meetings and study circles will help me tremendously in my job as well. All the trainings that I have attended have a direct impact in my work too!

Participating in these programs and trainings has allowed me to make connections I may not of had otherwise and has help me accomplish more in a shorter time. Participating has been VERY enlightening too! I have learned how to work with city council, how to approach or how NOT to approach someone about possible change. I have learned through examples provided by others.

I feel Kooskia has gained many new leaders. The city council has two members who actively participate in the program and I feel that their participation will only help the city in its endeavors. Kooskia is really working on bringing more cottage industries to main street. There are many retiring shopkeepers looking to sell out and there is the potential for a thriving community if we can have cottage businesses in our little town. Upcoming entrepreneurial training, the 2 degrees Northwest Program, the economic survey of Kooskia and the partnership with the Kooskia Horizons and the Upper Clearwater Community Foundation are all steps our community have taken as a result of participation in the Horizons Program.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the blogging class. I hear it was VERY helpful. However I did glean info from the handouts (which was clear enough to allow me to blog now). For me, blogging is not all that difficult. I realized that writing in “Code” is not for me, so I use the “Visual Editor” option in my profile settings. Blog writing is just a matter of MAKING the time to blog. It is a lot like writing a journal entry each day except instead of penning your thoughts on paper, you are doing so on the keyboard. I think the most painful part of blogging is actually setting up the site or becoming an authorized author. Once past that step, MAKING the time is the biggest challenge for me.

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Silver Valley, an Idaho Horizons community, stated that April was Child Abuse Awareness Month. This site also provides valuable information regarding Youth Suicide Prevention.

The sun is shining and it is a great day today!

Christine

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?

Kooskia Horizons plans to become an action team under the 501c3 Upper Clearwater Community Foundation aka UCCF. Website is UCCF.info/

We will continue with our current action teams. Economic Development/Tourism, and Youth, Education, Leadership (YEL) and Communications.

Current project for economic development include the Thursday Peoples Market slated to open in May where locals may set up a table and trade their goods or harvest items.

The YEL action team recently sponsored blog training. Later in May the Kooskia Horizons team will sponsor a three day entrepreneurial training that close to 40 people have enrolled.

We look forward to the exciting business ideas that will generate a new economy in our area! Our steering committee and action teams are VERY active in training our community in various ways. We are seeing new faces at these training which tells us we are generating new leaders. Even the school aged demographic is participating!

Our Economic Development team is working on poverty reduction by providing the platform of the Peoples Market. I am excited to see what the participation will be this spring and summer. The venue is free so we hope that people will think to shop locally before they take their dollars out of our community.

We thank all who are active in Horizons!

South Dakota has really neat info about chicken tractors see below or go to their blog site http://southdakota.communityblogs.us/

Below is the blog written by the South Dakota Team regarding Chicken Tractors.Chicken Tractors??? Who Knew! April 16th, 2008 by Cheryl Jacobs

How to build a chicken tractor

Have a great day! Christine

A meeting has been set for Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at the Discovery Center at Clearwater Valley Elementary School for 6:15 p.m. for the Kooskia Horizons Leadership/Education & Youth Committee. We are encouraging everyone to attend!

The Kooskia Horizons Leadership Program will be hosting a Media Communication Workshop, February 19, 2008, at the Kooskia Community Building (City Hall) from 7:00-8:30 PM. Are you involved with a church, service organization, 4 wheeling club, fire district, girl or boy scouts,
4-H, youth athletics or any other group? Need to get the word out about an event or an invitation to participate? Does the thought of writing an informational article for the newspaper or a quick announcement for the radio give you chills? This workshop is a MUST for you. Topics will include: Guidelines to Writing a Press Release, What is a Public Service Announcement (PSA) and How to Write One, Print vs. Broadcast, and Designing a Flyer or Poster. The workshop is open to anyone active within local communities 14 years old or older. Please bring pencil and paper, laptops are welcome. There is no charge for this event and snacks will be provided. For more information, contact Debbie @ 935-0764 or Leigh @ 926-4439.

The Old Opera House is for sale. We are in danger of losing this community icon built in 1912. Couple this with 9 other businesses for sale or just sold in downtown Kooskia and you have a community on the brink of economic disaster. The Kooskia Horizons Economic Action Team identified this need early on and partnered with the Upper Clearwater Community Foundation to get a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts to do a feasibility study to determine if it would be viable to have this building be purchased by a local 501 c 3 and retained as a community building. The answer was a resounding YES! However, the current owners have an offer in the works so we are on hold. The good news is that the anchor tenant, a local arts cooperative, is moving forward in hopes that this building will be available for rent or that they will look for another location. And thanks to local media coverage, the other businesses for sale have had increased interest.

In response to the rising demand for entrepreneural training in rural Idaho, Lewis Clark State College (LCSC) developed an on-line class. Identified as one of the top needs in Kooskia and upon inquiry with the LCSC Small Business Development about their NxLevel program, the offer was made for interested budding entrepreneurs to test this class. Normally the NxLevel 12 session class is conducted on the LCSC campus in Lewiston, 45 miles away and at a $300 fee; both huge barriers. In two days, 21 participants stepped forward to begin the class. This immediate response reaffirmed with LCSC the need for this class.

In late April, early May Kooskia Horizons will join together will Phase I Horizons community, Kamiah to host a 9 hour entrepreneur workshop locally to provide additional assistance to those taking the on-line course and to other people within the region.

This 8 member Action Team will be involved with the following issues: Lack of Living Wage jobs; Business and Service Directory and the Community Bulletin Board. By June of 2008, we hope to establish an active partnership between the Chamber of Commerce and IdaLew foundation to increase the presence of small businesses in Kooskia, as well as increase the active membership in the Kooskia Chamber of Commerce. We also want to have a Business Market Analysis completed, to identify new businesses that Kooskia needs and determine their sustainability. We will also work with the other Kooskia Horizons Action Teams to complete the Community Bulletin Board and Resource Guide. Long Term, we would like to bring businesses to the Kooskia area that will create an additional 50 jobs.
Kooskia Horizons is slowly overcoming apathy and the defeatist attitude that has undermined similiar endeavors.