Kooskia, ID

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 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

Framing Our Community (FOC) is a nonprofit dedicated to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life in the communities of North Central Idaho.
To achieve this goal our rural communities need to build Community Capacity by strengthening leadership skills; an important component is the understanding of board responsibilities among our local nonprofit organizations and local governments.

Lynn Hoffman, Executive Director of the Idaho Nonprofit Development Center will conduct training on board roles and responsibilities, legal duties, and good board practices. All participants will come away with a good understanding of how an ethical board operates and what their individual responsibilities are to uphold it. Lynn will review 10 responsibilities of a board, discuss governance (board) roles vs. member roles, staff vs. board roles, board structure and tips and tricks for board effectiveness.

This lively training session will be held May 12, 2008, in the Spirit Center at the Monastery of St. Gertrude’s, 465 Keuterville Road, Cottonwood, Idaho. The morning session will begin at 10:00 am and end at 5:00 pm. We will share a delicious, home-cooked lunch with the sisters in the monastery dining room for a cost of $8.00. All other expenses for the facility and instructor are being funded by FOC’s Northwest Area Foundation “Great Strides Award.”

To reserve seats for your board members please RSVP Ellen at Framing Our Community by April 25th via telephone (208) 842-2939 or 842-2322, mail
(PO Box 321, Elk City Idaho 83525) or e-mail (ellen@framingourcommunity.org).

The Horizons Program has done amazing things for the communities in North Central Idaho. The least of which is encouraging, motivating and supporting all community members.
As Horizons Phase II transitions into a community-based program, the Upper Clearwater Community Foundation (UCCF) will act as the fiscal agent and 501 c3 non-profit organization. The Foundation is an established organization that has provided support to the community projects in the Clearwater Valley for the past 2 years.
With the increased involvement of community members, we are looking forward to Kooskia becoming the embodiment of our community vision.

Can you believe that Kooskia is now seeing a change in the people who are involved in community events? As the Horizon’s Leadership Program continues to roll forward, we are now seeing new faces becoming involved. This is an exciting change in our small community! As I have become more involved myself this has been one of the issues that has become apparent as the annual events unfold. Thank you to all of you who are taking action instead of sitting back and watching. Each time we have met at Horizon’s Program Events such as the Steering Committee, Leadership Plenty, Visioning Rally, Commuity Pot-Luck, etc. it has been a pleasure to meet, see, and rub shoulders with people in our community with whom I’ve never met previously.

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.

The Horizon’s Program through U of I held a multi-community Summit meeting in Grangeville on Thursday, January 24th, 2008. Our community had 5 representatives in attendance. The focus of this meeting was to have each community partner with other communities, groups, organizations, and representatives. This was a success for the representatives from our community. We were able to make contact with organizations such as Velocity Business Inc., The Hingston Roach Group, Inc., Lewis-Clark State College, Idaho Heritage Trust, University of Idaho Outreach Program, Rural School Community Trust, Clearwater Economic Development, USDA Rural Development, and approximately a dozen others. Each of these organizations has a specific focus in assisting communities like ours. The communities also had about 15 minutes each to present their successes, set-backs, progress, and further plans. Through these presentations we were able to discover other ideas that may be implemented for our community. We were also able to meet many of their key individuals in their Horizon’s group. This opportunity has now given us a key part to creating a better community. Personally, I was also asking for information regarding groups or organizations who will help fund private business ventures. There have been a few ideas passed around that will help establish an economic foundation for our progress. This has been an area of focus that will require more development.

The Greater Kooskia Chamber of Commerce is starting out the new year with a new look. Some of the new board members transitioned from leadership roles in the hHorizons Program to leadership positions in the Chamber. In addition, the Chamber has moved thier meeting time to evenings to accomodate a wider variety of members and businesses.

The lastest group to partener with the Chamber is the Student Council/Student body of Clearwater Valley High School. This exciting move will increase the participation of youth in our community activities.

We look forward to some great events from these groups!

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.