Minnesota

Horizons II communities successfully completed the 18-month program and Horizons staff  want to share two documents developed that highlight the many successes the communities accomplished.  The first is a report on activities around the three outcome areas of Horizons - leadership development, poverty reduction, and community/partnership/infrastructure development.  You can access this report by clicking on:  Action on Horizons Outcomes 

The second document highlight the findings from the pre and post test done in the communities during the study circle and LeadershipPlenty components of the program.  You can access this report by going to Community Evaluation Results of Pre and Post Tests

 Amazing work by amazing people that reinforces our belief that Minnesota is the best place to live!

The Center provides all kinds of information on rural development.  They include sections on community development, tourism, acquiring resources, just to name a few.  They also have an “ask a question” component where a reference librarian will respond to your specific question.  Very cool!

You can access Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunities website to learn about national trends, projects, and political activities surrounding poverty.  It provides a glimpse on how everyone around the country is trying to address the impacts of poverty on individuals and communities.  Check it out!

Please click on the Family: Understanding Youth resource page to access all kinds of publications and tools for adults who want to learn more about speaking with youth on a variety of topics.  The resources are put together from Extension’s Center for Youth Development.  A sample of topics includes:

• fun activities for youth all of ages
• positive parenting
• understanding peer pressure
• building resilency for youth to make good choices regarding drugs and drinking

How to plan and build sustainable affordable housing and communities in Minnesota. 

Minnesota Green Communities is a statewide collaboration of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Family Housing Fund, and Enterprise. The National Green Communities initiative is a five-year commitment by Enterprise to build more than 8,500 healthy, efficient homes for low-income people and make sustainable development the mainstream in the affordable housing industry.

They are having a statewide conference on May 21-22.  There’s a link below were you can access their conference website.

Featuring keynote speakers: Mark Fenton and Van Jones.

Both days include expert workshops and a luncheon keynote address on a wide array of affordable, sustainable development topics, including residential green building, Minnesota Housing funding requirements, energy conservation and climate protection strategies, equitable green economic development, and healthy homes and communities.

 http://www.mngreencommunities.org/gbd/index.htm 

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

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

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/