Minnesota

The April/May contest is to add new bloggers to your community’s blog.

Have new users sign up to be bloggers using the steps outlined in the Mini-Blogging Guide to help them sign and up and learn the basics of how to blog.

Think of creative questions to ask them relating to their personal and the community’s participation in the Horizons program. Here are a few examples:

1. What changes do you see if your community as a result of participating in the Horizons program?

2. How has participating in the Horizons program affected you personally?

3. What are some major milestones or achievements you have seen your community reach?

4. What are some Horizons related projects your community is currently working or or plans to carry on into the future?

5. How has the Horizons program helped develop leadership in your community? What populations have grown the most in terms of leadership?

The community that has the most new bloggers by the end of May will win the contest!

There are a number of ways you can sign-up new bloggers - you can post an announcement on your community’s web site. You could hold a blogging party or blogging night at a community member’s home, the local library, high school or coffee shop. Add a few minutes of blogging to your next Horizons meeting and find interested people there. Be creative!

As always, if you need help, let me know!

Happy Blogging!

The Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration offers a two-day certificate program in Volunteer Leadership.  The cost is very reasonable, scholarships are available, and there are trainings coming up in New Ulm and the Twin Cities, as well as later in the year in Rochester.  Register on the MAVA website!

What affect do box stores have on communities? How can your business compete? Kent Stone, professor at Iowa State University, studied the Wal-Mart Phenomenon and released a report in 1997 called “Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities”. Many of you have likely already seen it. But, if you haven’t, take a look. The report also includes useful tips on what businesses can do to compete. He gives tips on customer relations, service, marketing and merchandise.

Impact of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities

This appeared in my inbox today, courtesy of Minnesota Rural Partners, and I thought it might be of interest to those of you who are focusing on sustainability issues and/or business development in your communities:

6th Annual Symposium on Small Towns - “The Power of Small:  Building Solutions for Energy Self-Reliance” will be held June 3 – 4 in Morris.  There are many self-reliant approaches to small-scale food, fuel, and power systems for schools and local governments.  This years Symposium will focus on social, economic, environmental, and political factors that surround the building of these systems.
Representatives from P-12 schools, higher education, and local units of government are the primary audience for this Symposium.  Sign up now for early registration at www.centerforsmalltowns.org  or call (320) 589-6451.

The following are resources forwarded by Deborah Moore,  Associate Director of the MN Youth Work Institute:

• “Creating Youth-Adult Partnerships” from the Innovation Center.  They can be downloaded or ordered on line at  www.innovationcenter.org
• “Building Community” from the Innovation Center.  They can also be downloaded or ordered on line at  www.innovationcenter.org
• “15 Points – Successfully Involving Youth in Decision-Making”  Youth on Board.  Can be found at www.youthonboard.org

Citizen media projects are springing up across the country and the world. Between now and the end of June 2008, E-Democracy.org is hosting Citizen Media Outreach Events across rural Minnesota to showcase some of these exciting projects, and encourage the launch of similar projects in rural Minnesota.
 

http://pages.e-democracy.org/Minnesota_citizen_media#Community_News_.2F_Blogs

This approach focuses on learning about and understanding all the assets that are available in a community. Assets can include people, skills, buildings, nature (like parks and rivers), etc. If a community can identify all the assets in the community, those assets can be used to help people in need.

Here are examples of what is happening in some communities:

• a program to help people buy and repair their own cars (assets identified to make this happen included a retired mechanic and an unused car garage)
• starting a “buy local” program or campaign
• pooling financial resources to create a “lending circle” program to help people get credit to start a business of their own (assets identified include people with business start-up experience and people who have ideas and interest in starting a business)

We’ve already seen some of these ideas listed in some community plans in Minnesota and we look forward to adding other ideas to the list!

As always, if you’d like additional information on all the approaches, please log on to Everyday Democracy’s (formerly Study Circle Resource Center) website at

http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/index.aspx

and click on the poverty link under issues on the right hand side. From there you’ll see the link to the “Thriving Communities: Working Together to Move From Poverty to Prosperity for All” guide.

The Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) commissioned Lake Research Partners (LRP) to conduct a national tracking survey to explore the public’s perception of poverty in one’s own community, attitudes toward the roles of local elected officials, and ways in which to address the issue. The survey was conducted among 4,000 Americans age 18 and older, from February 8-29, 2008. Eight hundred interviews were conducted nationally, and oversamples of 400 were conducted in each of the following eight states: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The oversamples were weighted down to reflect their true proportion in the country. The margin of error is +/-3.5 percentage points for national and +/-5.0 points for state results. This is the third survey of its kind, replicating studies NWAF and LRP released in March 2006[1] and April 2007.

There are three documents that cover Minnesota responses:

Results from a National Survey 

A Briefing Paper for Minnesota Policymakers 

Detailed Minnesota Results with Survey Questions 

Are you trying to determine whether a proposed business is right for your community? . The Wage & Benefits Metric is designed to help local decision makers measure just what kind of jobs this new business would bring into the local economy: living wage, minimum wage, full- or part-time, with benefits or without.   It is a free, web-based easy-to-use tool and you can access it at:

http://jobmetric.nwaf.org/

The new Achieve Scholarship program is designed to address two critical barriers to college attendance: lack of academic preparation and financial access. High school graduates who complete any one of four sets of courses defined as rigorous earn a one-time scholarship of $1,200 to help pay for college at a public or private university or college. The Achieve scholarship, which was proposed by Governor Tim Pawlenty in January 2007 and signed into law in May, is available to students who graduate after January 1, 2008. To be eligible, a student must:

• Have a parental adjusted gross income of less than $75,000 reported on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the academic year during which the scholarship is requested (this limit also applies to the adjusted gross income reported for independent students)
• Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen
• Meet the definition of Minnesota resident used for state financial aid programs
• Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
• Attend an eligible public or private postsecondary institution in Minnesota.
• Apply for the scholarship no later than 30 days after the term starts
• Successfully complete the first term of college enrollment in order to receive the second $600 installment of the Achieve Scholarship
• Complete one of the four sets of rigorous programs of study while in high school or in a home-school setting described below

To learn more about the Achieve Scholarship program, visit: http://www.getreadyforcollege.org/gPg.cfm?pageID=1789

To learn more about getting ready for college and applying for financial aid, visit: www.getreadyforcollege.org