Cottonwood, ID

On February 27th, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at the Spirit Center at St. Gertrude’s Monastery, the University of Idaho Extension will provide free training on community center development.

Anyone in the North Central Idaho Horizons communities including Cascade, Riggins, Grangeville, Cottonwood, Keuterville, Greencreek, Ferdinand, Kooskia, Stites, Pierce, Weippe, Kamiah, and Orofino are invited to attend.

This training will help community members recognize opportunities and challenges for building a community center as well as how to plan, design, fund, and operate a community center.

Craig Smith, deputy director of Rural Development Initiatives out of Portland, OR will lead the training. Crait has considerable experience and education in non-profit and business development, community organization, and fund acquisition.

The training is FREE and open to all members of Horizons communities, as well as other interested rural Idaho residents. Lunch will be provided to those attending the Cottonwood event.

Those planning to attend are asked to contact Meri Joswiak, Horizons program assistant by email at merijoz@uidaho.edu or by telephone at (208) 885-8949.

For additional information about the Horizons program go to this website http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/horizons/training regional.htm

This week, on Tuesday, February 12th, the Intergenerational Action Group will be meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at the Community Center.

The primary focus of the meeting will be to discuss the Assisted Living Center. Those who braved the weather to visit an Assisted Living Center in this area last month, are asked to please bring whatever information you have and be prepared to share what you learned.

There’s a possibility that a guest speaker, Jenni Schacher, who is the program administrator for CEDA (Clearwater Economic Development Association) will attend this meeting. If she is able to come, she has some guidance for us which could help regarding the Community Center Project. If she does come, this topic will take priority for the evening.

We hope to see many of you on Tuesday night.

There doesn’t seem to be a time in recent memory when Prairie community members can recall the Quad Cities (Cottonwood, Ferdinand, Keuterville, Greencreek) plus two (Monastery of St. Gertrude and North Idaho Correctional Institute) coming together as a group to work on the same program. In addition, each group is actively advocating for the best interests of the other groups. “Do we have anyone from Keuterville on the committee?” “Make sure the sisters can come on that day!” “Does the Ferdinand city council know about this opportunity?” There is a changing mindset happening from local to regional, what one steering committee member referred to as, “a oneness of communities.” This is how a vision becomes a reality!

The Communication, Coordination, Celebration Action Team submits regular newspaper articles and blog entries for consistent communication on agendas, minutes, trainings, and action team updates. The team is working with a local website designer to get a “Planting the Seeds of our Vision” website up and running. Keep checking the weekly Community Events at a Glance column for action team meeting times and locations.

Angie Latimer quit her postal carrier job and started a new business in Cottonwood after hearing parents in her community express their concerns about the lack of appropriate options for area youth. Having safe fun activities available to youth during out-of-school time is a high priority for prairie families. Facilitating Community Conversations gave Angie the inspiration and encouragement to open Angie’s Crafts and Supplies to offer youth meaningful activities and interacitons. Angie’s store offers classes on ceramics, jewelry-making, fly-tying, scrapbooking, and much more.

Do stop by Angie’s store and see what exciting things are happening. Your encouragement and support are very important!

Two Interior Design students from the University of Idaho worked on a Horizons team goal for their semester project. They began by attending the “Planting the Seeds of our Vision” rally and met with the Intergenerational Action Team.

The team has a “more user-friendly” community center as a goal. The students also met with the police chief and community coach to tour the community center, ask questions, and take wall and floor measurements. The result of their work is a series of architectural drawings that illustrate the potential for short-term and long-term change in the functionality of the community center. The Intergenerational Action Team is very motivated at seeing their concepts for change become reality!

A resource guide has been developed by the Welcome to the Prairie Action Team with information about the Prairie’s history, geography, recreation areas, schools, civic organizations, businesses, churches, and emergency medical services. The guide was designed to help new families learn about their community and how to get involved. The guide is being distributed through the schools and churches in the Quad Cities.

Prairie Horizons currently has four action teams with a total of 30 members and 25 community members have or are currently serving on the steering committee. One hundred fifty-seven people have committed to and been involved with some aspect of Prairie Horizons. Congratulations and thanks to all who are involved in seeing our vision become a reality!

Wanna know what youth think about poverty? Just ask ‘em: Prairie Horizons deliberately pursued a multi-generational perspective on poverty by including two classes of eighth grade Social Studies students in our Community Conversations on thriving communities and prosperity for all.