Minnesota

Looking for a way to jumpstart your Horizons groups after a long, hot summer? In mid-September at locations around the state, Horizons will host regional training workshops open to any Horizons community member. Come pick up new ideas and strategies to aid in your local Horizons projects.

**CLICK HERE TO REGISTER**

**Download a printable poster to advertise around your community**

The program is designed specifically for Horizons communities and will complement the work already begun by communities in the areas of leadership development and poverty reduction. Workshop programming includes “Preserve, Change, Create: What’s on Your Horizon?” from the Leadership and Civic Engagement team and a showcase of Community Economics programs geared at strengthening Minnesota’s local economies through informed community decisions.

Peer learning opportunities will also allow communities to give updates on their Horizons projects-share your successful strategies with others. Last, we’ll introduce new opportunities available for Horizons communities in the upcoming year. The workshops are FREE. Breakfast, lunch, and learning materials will be provided. Hotel rooms will be available for those traveling over two hours to the workshop site.

Workshop Locations

Starbuck: Thursday, Sept 16, 8:30am-5:30pm
@ Community Center
Starbuck, MN

Chisholm: Saturday, Sept 18, 8:30am-5:30pm
@ Valentini’s
31 West Lake Street, Chisholm, MN  55719

Callaway: Monday, Sept 20, 8:30am-5:30pm
@ Maplelag Resort
3051 Maplelag Road, Callaway, MN 56521

New York Mills: Tuesday Sept 21, 8:30am- 5:30pm
@ City Hall
28 W Centennial 84 Dr, New York Mills, MN 56567  

St. James: Wednesday, Sept 22, 8:30am-5:30pm
@ First Presbyterian Church
706 3rd Avenue South, St James, MN 56081-1745

Pine City: Saturday, Sept 25, 8:30am-5:30pm
@ Location TBD

Agenda (tentative)

8:30am, Breakfast

8:45am, Welcome and Introductions

9am-12pm, “Preserve, Change, Create: What’s on Your Horizon?”

12-2pm, Peer Learning

2pm, Break

2:30-5:30pm, Community Economics Showcase

Come for all or part of the day as your schedule and interest allow!

Register

Visit http://z.umn.edu/rsvp to register. Alternately, contact us at 866-407-4906

Contact us with questions

Monica Herrera
866-407-4906 toll free
612-624-7649
Herre066@umn.edu

For over one year we’ve been talking about implementing the Voices of Rural Minnesota program. We are happy to say that the application materials are available and the program will launch this fall!

Purpose Statement

The Voices of Rural Minnesota program seeks to increase awareness of the rural and tribal experience by educating key stakeholders on the realities of small rural and tribal communities through storytelling and information dissemination.

Program Goals

The Voices of Rural Minnesota Program will engage a group of up to 30 individuals from across Minnesota to:

1. Identify and develop individual public presentation skills
2. Recruit and train a diverse group of speakers representing all regions of MN
3. Provide speakers with accurate information to use to move audiences to action
4. Educate, motivate, and empower community members to play a larger role in community issues
5. Identify and collaborate with partners to identify and research impact of current policies on rural issues
6. Identify venues for speaking engagements
7. Create powerful public presentations that highlight life in small rural communities
8. Create and implement evaluation processes to access impact of program

Please forward this post and the attached application materials to anyone you think would be a good candidate.

Voices of Rural Minnesota Application Packet

The Minnesota Community Pride awards voting is open! A few Horizons communities were honored with awards last summer. This year, another two Horizons communities are on the ballot: Menahga and Waterville.

Visit the voting page at Minnpost.com and cast your ballot by August 13! (And don’t forget to vote in your local primary election tonight!!)

The Minnesota Council on Foundations is hosting a Grantseeking for Beginners Seminar on Thursday, August 19th, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska. Horizons favorite Lori-Anne Williams is the speaker!Horizons has scholarships to assist with registration and mileage reimbursement. Contact Monica Herrera (herre066@umn.edu, 866-407-4906) or Bjorn Arneson (arne0155@umn.edu) for more details.http://www.mcf.org/MCF/grant/seminar_reg.htm

Learn the basics of effective grantseeking from the premier source of Minnesota grantmaking information and knowledge!

The Minnesota Council on Foundations’ popular Grantseeking for Beginners seminar provides essential information for grantseekers interested in learning the basics of grantwriting.

At MCF’s seminars, you’ll learn from the experts and leaders in Minnesota’s grantmaking field. The Minnesota Council on Foundations is a well-known and highly regarded source of information and knowledge on the grantmaking field and the grantseeking process and has been offering grantseeking seminars for more than 15 years.

The Grantseeking for Beginners seminar will help you:

• Be more effective in researching potential sources for grant support
• Gain an understanding of good proposal development process, and pinpoint key elements and information to include in your grant proposals
• See the proposal review and decision-making process from a grantmaker’s point of view during a grantmaker panel discussion

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits hosts networking lunches throughout the state. These lunches focus around topics of interest to nonprofits and community groups: fundraising, communications, financial management, emerging leaders, human resources.Networking lunches are scattered throughout the state, with regularly scheduled events happening in these places:

• Mankato Area Network Lunches, monthly, Mankato
• Fairmont Area Network Lunches, bi-monthly, Fairmont
• Marshall Area Network Lunches, bi-monthly, Marshall
• Willmar Area Network Lunches, bi-monthly, Marshall
• Duluth Area Network Lunches, bi-monthly, Duluth
• Grand Rapids Area Network Lunches, bi-monthly, Grand Rapids
• Aitkin Area Network Lunches, quarterly, Aitkin

Got a problem or opportunity you want help sorting out? Pop into a networking luncheon to bounce ideas off of other community-minded folks.For a limited time, travel/mileage reimbursement may be available for Horizons community members. Contact Bjorn Arneson (arne0155@umn.edu) or Monica Herrera (herre066@umn.edu, 866-407-4906) for futher details.

ST. PAUL, Minn.  (July 26, 2010)  The Northwest Area Foundation has awarded grants totaling $1.9 million to seven state universities to expand work of Horizons - an 18-month leadership development program for rural towns with populations of 5,000 or fewer and with poverty rates of at least 10 percent. These grants will bolster poverty-reduction work within 260 communities in seven states that have completed Horizons. The funds will support work such as financial literacy education for youth and adults, business training, leadership development, public policy engagement and building awareness and use of tax credits for low-income families.  Grant dollars will also be used to further community action plans, leverage public and private funding and to identify resources communities can tap into to sustain their work. The universities’ extension services will provide coaching, training, and resources.”Horizons has been a powerful call to action for people passionate about making change in their rural communities.  We want to build on the momentum that nearly 300 towns have generated in just a year-and-a-half.  These funds will help move their ideas to the next level of impact,” said Kevin Walker, president and CEO of Northwest Area Foundation.

Grants were made to the following intermediary organizations:

• Regents of the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho - $200,000 will fund asset- and wealth-building strategies in 34 communities.   Activities include financial literacy education for youth and adults, small business training, tax clinics, grant-seeking workshops and networking at a statewide rural conference.
• Regents of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - $200,000 was awarded to increase understanding of financial management, leadership, public speaking and public policy skills in 25 communities and to increase understanding of poverty among University graduate students. 
• Washington State University, Spokane, Washington - $300,000 was awarded to build partnerships in 40 communities that will increase leadership and effectiveness, expand asset- and wealth- creation programs, and build expertise in public policy work. Funding will provide intensive trainings in asset- and wealth-building strategies, such as savings accounts and tax credits for low income people, microenterprise development, affordable housing and transportation.
• Iowa State University Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa - $300,000[1] was awarded to provide continued coaching, assistance and resources to the Horizons Steering Committees, the groups that guide Horizons in 35 communities.  Funding will support asset- and wealth-creation opportunities, tax preparation training, and financial management training.  Statewide convenings on financial literacy issues, leadership and public policy will promote civic engagement.
• Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana - $300,000 was awarded to promote financial education, business training, leadership development and civic engagement in 35 communities.
• North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota - $300,000 was awarded to support work in 42 communities such as youth and family financial literacy trainings, regional microenterprise trainings and strategies to promote community gardens and farmers markets.
• South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota - $300,000 was awarded to fund advanced education and technical trainings in 36 communities within four key areas:  entrepreneurship, development of local food systems, family financial management, business training and mentorships, and leadership training.

All 260 communities will convene for monthly webinars with their counterparts across the seven states to build connections, develop awareness of others’ work, learn about potential collaborative efforts and increase knowledge about successful asset- and wealth-building strategies.  They will gather periodically within their own states for networking and information sharing.

The Northwest Area Foundation is dedicated to supporting efforts by the people, organizations and communities in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable prosperity. These states were served by the Great Northern Railway, founded by James J. Hill. In 1934, Hill’s son Louis W. Hill established the Foundation.

The Foundation is currently accepting grant proposals only on an invitation basis.  For more information about the Foundation’s grantmaking approach and the work of grantees across its eight-state region, please visit www.nwaf.org.

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[1] $76,000 of this grant is from the Northwest Area Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

Learn about creating new jobs, starting a business, fighting predatory lending, shaping public policy to benefit low income families, and more. Watch one or all 20 of these valuable break-out sessions. They’re just a click away on your computer. Discover practical tools and models that are working in rural, reservation and urban communities just like yours.

Visit www.grassrootsandgroundwork.org/breakout-sessions.htm.

Sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation, Grassroots & Groundwork is a national conference that highlights proven and innovative strategies and tools for reducing poverty and fostering community prosperity.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 Minnesota Preservation Awards, a program run by the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota.  Nominations, due Wednesday July 21, 2010, can focus on preservation projects or worthy efforts of communities, groups and individuals, in the areas of:

• Adaptive Reuse
• Addition/Expansion
• Archaeological Site/Protection
• Advocacy
• Career Achievement
• Community Effort
• Education/Interpretation/Publication
• Emerging Leader
• Preservation Planning
• Restoration/Rehabilitation
• Stewardship
• Sustainable Design

Awards are given not on the basis of size of investment, but rather on the merit the project provides to its community.

Two community members from Menahga visited NYC and managed to get “Flat Urho” a starring role on the Early Morning Show: Check out the video at http://wcco.com/thewire/#/06162010/1754854.

Minnpost.com featured a couple articles about rural Minnesota politics and the June 2010 Symposium on Small Towns in Morris:

Reviving rural Minnesota: Some small towns with big ideas by Sharon Schmickle

“Sure, we celebrate our rural cultural heritage at the State Fair every summer. And we indulge our need for a collective memory with the pretense of life in the prairie town of Garrison Keillor’s fantasy.

“The truth is, though, that to maintain a cohesive culture and an economy that can thrive statewide, we have to work at it. That’s what drew more than 200 people to University of Minnesota Morris campus for the Symposium on Small Towns & Rural-Urban Gathering.”

…plus a shout-out to Hoffman, Minnesota, and Muriel Krusemark!

Greater Minnesota bracing for reduced political clout by Doug Grow

“The population shift isn’t just a political problem for farmers. It’s a problem for those who rely on transportation dollars, school funding and Local Government Aid and, of course, for the communities themselves in Greater Minnesota.”