Presho, SD

Presho has participated in the study circles, leadership plenty, and is now in Horizons II. Surveys were given to the study circle participants at the beginning to obtain their knowledge of poverty and again at the conclusion of those sessions. The information on the surveys shows that the Presho participants have increased in their knowledge of poverty. The surveys were scaled from 1 (little knowledge) to 4 (much knowledge) about poverty. The categories and the results are:

1. Knowing the kinds of poverty that affect the area: beginning 2.23 at the end 3.47

2. Reasons it’s difficult to get out of poverty: beginning 2.28 at the end 3.27

3. How poverty affects the community: beginning 2.33 at the end 3.33

4. Strategies to reduce poverty: beginning 2.00 at the end 3.27

5. Individual actions to reduce poverty: beginning 2.15 at the end 3.27

6. Community actions to reduce poverty: beginning 2.08 at the end 2.87

7. Policies to reduce poverty: beginning 1.92 at the end 2.67

8. Knowing possible causes of poverty: beginning 2.62 at the end 3.53

From these results Presho participants learned a great deal about poverty and how it affects the community from participating in the study circles.
The survey showed that 100% of Presho participants showed an increase in their knowledge of poverty compared to 88.3% in other communities. Survey shows that 75% have already taken action in their community to reduce poverty compared to 58.3% in other communities.

The surveys were given to the youth in the community and the survey results show that the youth gained a great deal of knowledge from the study circles, too. Survey results at the beginning ranged from 1.67 to 3.00; ending survey results ranged from 2.33 to 3.67. The survey showed that 100% of Presho youth showed an increase in their knowledge of poverty compared to 94% of youth in other participating communities. The survey shows that 66.7% of Presho’s youth have already taken some action to reduce poverty as compared to 50.9% of youth in all participating communities.

Knowledge of poverty is important; now it is necessary to take the action steps that are needed to make a difference. Check the survey results on the Presho site.

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In a recent survey Presho increased its knowledge of leadership in the community.  The survey shows that 57.1% of Presho’s LP participants felt they had increased their leadership skills and that 58.6% of this increase was due to participating in the LP study.

According to the survey 71.4% of Presho participants intend to use their leadership skills to work on poverty reduction.  The same percentage of respondents reported that they intended to involve more people in community decision-making.

The Horizons project has helped Presho to address or change poverty in their community as shown by 71.4% of respondents indicating that more people are aware of poverty in the community.  The survey shows that Presho participants showed an increase in leadership skills and abilities across all categories.

Mark Sunday, December 9 on your calendar!! Now that the Horizons visioning committee finished the mission statement, vision statement and community strategic plan for Presho, it’s time to have our Community Celebration!

EVERYONE IS INVITED to Hutch’s Sunday, December 9 to review the plan, make comments, maybe sign up to be part of one of the projects. No speakers, no program! Stop in between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm for a free supper. We plan to have Santa there, too, to visit with the kids (of all ages), take pictures with Santa and youth receive a small present from Santa.

The idea behind the “Change Presho” campaign is to ask folks to donate to a community project the change they receive from local businesses . For example, your bill at Husman’s could be $23.12. If you wrote your check for $24, it would be easier to balance your account and you could donate 88 cents to a community project. I think we would all be surprised how much money we could raise this way for really very little effort or expense on any one person. What could a community project be - maybe some possibilities would be trees in the boulevards, community signs, the community resource booklet, there are many ideas that could be pursued. What do others think of this idea? Cast your votes in the poll currently being conducted!

Presho”s population includes approximately 27% seniors age 60+ years. This is the age group a Senior meals and Meals on Wheels type program administered thru Rural Office of Community Services (ROCS) would benefit. November 16, at a “taste testing” trial of this program, 32 people participated, and a survey taken of that group indicated between 15 and 20 of them would expect to eat there any given day once we get the program up and running. Most of our Seniors recognize that having home delivery of meals available could mean living independently in their homes longer and it could improve the quality of their senior years.

Presho, along with Kennebec and Reliance will need to share a “Hot Shot Truck” to transport these meals from the facility in Chamberlain 5 days a week. We have formed an oversight board for Presho consisting of Janada Ramser, Norma Johnson, George Hubbard, Sandi Neil, Denny Keyes, Bette Ruemann,and JeanAnn Brakke and Dawn Keyes, chairman. Anyone wanting to be a part of this board please contact Dawn Keyes @ 895-2334. The board made application for a Schoenhard Foundation grant to cover our share of the Hot Shot Truck and we are hoping to start serving meals by mid January.

I have some great info. to share with you when I can relocate it! You may not realize what it “costs” you to shop out of town. In the meantime I wanted to share my own personal feelings on buying as many of our products locally as we can. Yes, several things we buy may be cheaper at Walmart or K-mart, but a lot of the ordinary things you will find are pretty much the same or not much more at our local stores. I shop here first and then if I can’t get it I will go elsewhere. And yes, if I happen to be somewhere else and really need something I may buy it there but I don’t make special trips for most things. I know some people work in Pierre and it’s handier or even necessary for them to shop there for food and such and I understand. I just think if I had to drive 18 miles (for me) to Kennebec to get a can of vegetables or 40 miles to Pierre it would be awfully inconvenient!! It is a God-send to have local businesses. And yes, it costs me more to buy my appliances here than at Best Buy, but my service man is only 8 miles away and that’s a lot handier (and cheaper for mileage!) when it comes to getting service done. That’s worth a LOT to me and is why we’ve done all that kind of shopping locally. Plus…we LIKE these people! It shouldn’t be too hard for a community our size to keep our businesses going and even make them flourish. It benefits everyone when the money recirculates in our own community. Everytime it goes from one hand to another it also generates sales tax for the city.

As soon as I get the “relocating” of my information done I’ll be sharing more with you. In the meantime, if you’re buying elsewhere on a regular basis or more often than not, please rethink our community and what it means to you. We appreciate every one of you…AND the businesses that live and grow here!

I would really like to find out what residents think of a thrift store in Presho? Does anyone have an idea of a building where we could put it?

Here’s my idea for a Proudly Purchased in Presho logo. I think the stylized P shows how money spent locally circulates locally.   I’m open to other ideas, improvements, suggestions and comments.  Maybe this will just get the ball rolling on a logo.

I have a couple of ideas for how to use it.  First get a bunch of very small stickers, like the Chiquita Banana sticker and put it on everything sold.  The second idea might be to provide shopping bags with the logo on it.

The Presho visioning committee has done a superb job working together to develop goals and objectives for Presho. The four goals identified will help Presho area communities achieve their vision. Look forward to their community meeting to discuss the plan further!