Presho, SD

The Presho Horizons Project will hold an alumni gathering Sunday, January 27 at 3:30 pm  at the Presho American Lutheran Church.  All attending will receive a coupon good for a free meal at the Presho United Methodist annual soup supper which starts serving at 5 pm courtesy of the Presho Horizons Project.

All Horizons alumni, those who participated in the study circles, LeadershipPlenty training, and visioning committee, along with anyone interested in learning more about the goals of the Presho Horizons Project are encouraged to attend this gathering.  

Several committee updates will be presented including the senior meals, thrift store, and the results of the ‘change’ Presho survey. 

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.

This is the latest iteration of our Vision statement.

Presho will be a community of at least 1000 where the residents want to stay and visitors want to come back. Citizens will enjoy a good standard of living with quality housing, living wage jobs, affordable health care, and family-nurturing activities. We will demonstrate community pride by having attractive, well-maintained homes along hard-surfaced streets flanked by modern, well-lit sidewalks. Our community is committed to providing our students with an excellent high-tech education that prepares them for the future. There will be activities for all, especially the youth and seniors. We will support existing businesses and encourage entrepreneurship. Our town will thrive for many years to come.

Community members who attended the last LeadershipPlenty session included front row, l-r; Stephan Stanley, Bette Reumann, Sandi Neil, Jackie Boyle, Karen Willis, Khristine Willis, Deb Brakke, and Laverne Olson. Standing l-r: Paul Olson, Tanner Langdeau, Chris Zirpel, Katie Zirpel, Connie Penny, Layne Ness, Juanita Willis, and Jean Ann Brakke                              Lyman County Herald photo

Lyman County Herald    June 20, 2007

Improving accessibility and sharing information about resources is the most common point of strategy South Dakota’s Horizons II communities share as they plan for the future. Presho Horizons Project LeadershipPlenty Class completed their nine-session class Thursday June 12.

Instructors included Gloria Schaefer, Tonya Ness, Teresa Shook and several SDSU Extension Service staff members. Attending were Sandi Neil, Brody Ness, Mandy Cole, Tammy Cole, Dave Cole, Carol Birgen, Juanita Willis, Chris Zirpel, Katie Zirpel, Stephan Stanley, Jenna Urban, Dawn Keyes, Denny Keyes, Alyce Keyes, Michelle Lintvedt, Bette Reumann, Laverne Olson, Michelle Schindler, Connie Penny, Karen Willis, Khristine Willis, Jean Ann Brakke, Tanner Langdeau, Steve Hayes, Kara Schelske, Layne Ness, Tiffany Moore, Deb Brakke, Jody Jessop, Jordan Jessop, Makenzi Taylor, Jim Schaefer, Mike Spenger, Cheryl Reinesch, Jordan Jessop, Lucy Halverson, Angela Ehlers, Jen Busak, Jackie Boyle, Mathew Boyle, Kathleen Boyle, Lavern Olson, Paul Olson, Ashley Keyes, Arlene Ambur, Arvid Ambur.

Communities are also working on beautification projects and business development as top priorities in their efforts to reduce poverty and build new leadership. Horizons II is a project delivered to 24 communities by the South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service with funding through the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul. The program gives communities support for efforts to reduce poverty while strengthening leadership in their rural areas.

Communities working with SDSU in the northwest region of the state include Bison, Newell, Faith, Whitewood and Lead/Deadwood. In the southwest/south central region the communities are Hot Springs, Buffalo Gap, Martin, Philip, Murdo, and Presho. In the northeast/east-central part of the state, communities include Sisseton, Frederick, Conde, Estelline, Iroquois, Oldham and Sanborn Central. Southeastern communities working with SDSU in the program include Montrose, Armour, Tripp, Scotland, Tyndall and Wagner. In addition, eight other communities - Greenwood, Marty, Lakes Andes/White Swan, Mission, Parmalee, Medicine Root/Kyle, Porcupine, and White River - are participating in Horizons II through an identical program led by Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Reservation, also with support from the Northwest Area Foundation.

SDSU Extension Community Leadership Development Specialists Specialists Kari Fruechte and Karla Trautman said communities went through a process using “study circles” to zero in on specific areas where they can focus community energy in the short-term to reduce poverty. After the study circles had met at least five times, each community held an “action forum” where residents selected several priorities to act on as the process moves forward.

Fruechte said from that process, 20 communities found sharing information about resources and improving accessibility to be a key immediate priority. Meanwhile, at least 16 communities planned to take action on cleanup or beautification projects, and 11 communities focused on business development. A total of seven communities named youth activities as a key action item for their future, while the same number came up with plans to fix or build a community center. Smaller numbers of communities came up with other action items ranging from buy local campaigns and community gardens to rural tourism.

The Horizons II communities still have a year to go in the project, Fruechte said. After completing LeadershipPlenty classes, communities will carry out a “visioning” process for their futures.

Trautman noted that data from a newly released survey commissioned by the Northwest Area Foundation on public attitudes toward poverty underscores the need the Horizons II project is trying to address. The survey finds that 66 percent of South Dakotans know someone in their community who works two or more jobs and struggles to make ends meet, compared to 50 percent of Americans nationally. Slightly more than half of South Dakotans view many in their communities as struggling.

“The fact that 53 percent of South Dakotans perceive that a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet helps us put a face to the fact that poverty is more prevalent than we think it is,” Trautman said. “Citizens might not have looked around their community before and realized that, Yes, poverty is present here, and we can do something about it.” Trautman said

SDSU Extension is in the process of expanding its work with South Dakota communities by re-focusing some existing extension educator positions towards community innovation and leadership.

By Lucy Halverson, Lyman County Herald  October 24, 2007

The Presho Horizons Project held a Visioning Kick Off event Monday, October 15 at the Presho United Methodist Church fellowship hall. Nearly 60 people of all ages enjoyed the free supper furnished by the Horizons Project and served by the Presho UMW. The people attending completed surveys regarding Presho and viewed a display of photos taken by area residents. The photos reflected the good and bad points of Presho according to the person taking the photos.

Dan Oedekoven of SDSU’s Cooperative Extension Service at Rapid City presented the demographics of Presho in regards to population and poverty.

Committee spokesmen reported on some of the issues and ideas that came from the study circles last spring. A city clean up was held, movies in the park were shown, and most currently a survey is being taken to see how many people in Presho and area towns would be interested in receiving meals for seniors and rural transportation.
LeadershipPlenty certificates of completion were presented to those who graduated from the Presho program.

Based on completed surveys, both the written and the camera survey, and comments received at the Visioning Kick Off. The following items were deemed important to how people would like to see Presho in the future; paved streets, housing, sidewalks, population increase, thriving business district, junk cleaned up, old buildings demolished, meals and transportation for elderly.

A Strategic Planning committee was formed of 10 to 12 volunteers who will meet over the next several weeks to write a plan for implementing these objectives into an action plan. Committee members include; Nicole Husman, Dawn Keyes, Brooke Smith, Michelle Lintvedt, Deb Smith, Teresa Shook, Owen Garnos, Angela Ehlers, Mandy Cole and Mike Sprenger. The plan will be presented to the community when completed. Watch for the date and time of the next community supper.

By Lucy Halverson, Lyman County Herald  October 10, 2007

The Presho Horizon project is conducting a survey to gain input regarding issues of importance to community members. The goal is to receive information from at least 15% of the city’s population.

The results of the completed surveys will be presented at a Community Visioning Kick Off event Monday, Oct. 15 at the Presho Methodist Church Hall. A free meal will be held at 6 pm followed by the presentation.

Drawings will be held for $25, $50 and $100 in chamber bucks. Must be present to win.
The Horizon Project will conclude in August of 2008 at which time the Presho Horizons group will receive the remander of their $10,000 grant from the Northwestern Area Foundation.

Horizons is a 18-month community leadership program aimed at reducing poverty in small rural communities (population less than 5,000). Funded by the Northwest Area Foundation of St. Paul, MN and partnered with South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension. 

Community members in Presho participated in a city-wide clean up Saturday. The event was organized by Presho Area Chamber and the Presho Horizons project. Mike Sprenger, Nicole Husman, and Lonny Seaboy hold trash on a trailer. Seven trailer loads of trash were picked up around town and taken to the rubble site. A couple more loads of white goods were also collected.   Photo and caption by Lucy Halverson, Lyman County Herald June 13, 2007

By Lucy Halverson, Lyman County Herald  May 16, 2007
The community of Presho completed their Horizons Action Forum Tuesday, May 8 at the gym in Presho. The action forum was the means to identify community priorities that community members will work on.

New Frontier catered the meal, which was enjoyed by over 45 people. Those attending the forum were able to view the list of community assets developed by the five different study circles and also read the vision statements developed by the circles. Mike Sprenger, a member of the Horizons steering committee introduced the SDSU Extension staff members on hand to assist with the action forum including Dan Oedekoven, CES - CD Extension Associate Karla Trautman and SDSU Extension Leadership Development Specialist.Spokesmen from each study circle presented their findings to the assembled group through the use of power point presentations.

Some of the actions that would improve poverty and encourage people to live in our community suggested by the study circles include:
1. Build a buy (purchase) local campaign.
2. Build a financial fund (development monies) with local contributions.
3. Find local ways to build affordable housing.
4. Develop more activities for the community’s youth.
5. Work with local apartment complex to develop two-bedroom units.
6. Recruit tech businesses and a local grant writer.
7. Provide job training.
8. Build a community center in Presho.
9. Develop a go-cart track.
10. Start a movie theater.
11. Complete an all-weather track.
12. Create more and better jobs.
13. Start programs to assist the elderly population.
14. Start a clothing pantry.

Ms. Trautman explained how the Horizons Project could help our community implement these types of actions. “The program teaches how to draw a group of people together in a positive way to work on an community issue,” said Trautman. The community members, with assistance from the SDSU extension staff worked to prioritize the list of action items. Some items will be able to move forward relatively easy with a task force in charge, such as the clothing pantry idea. Other more complex actions, like finding ways to build affordable housing, may need to be referred to the LeadershipPlenty Class that will start this week.

To develop community leadership skills the next step of the Horizons Project is LeadershipPlenty. LeadershipPlenty teaches participants the insight and thought process needed for successful communication and conflict management in order to implement positive change in a community. “LeadershipPlenty will teach you how an effective meeting should and could be run in order to accomplish the desired outcome. No one has time to waste at a meeting,” added Trautman.

The first LeadershipPlenty class will be Thursday, May 17 at 6:30 at the Presho Area Chamber Room. Sign up by calling Mike Sprenger at 895-9422 or come to the first meeting.

Several task force groups have been developed and a coordinator named. The task force groups include:
1. Buy local campaign, contact person Teresa Shook
2. Develop youth activities, contact people Carol Birgen or Deb Brakke
3. Clothing pantry, contact Michelle Schindler
4. Community clean up, contact Nicole Husman
5. Develop elderly programs, contact Betty Jean Mertens

Horizons II is a two-year grant program to strengthen leadership and fight poverty. The South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service delivers the program with funding through the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul. As part of the Horizons II project, SDSU Extension is working with the communities of Bison, Newell, Faith, Whitewood, and Deadwood in northwestern South Dakota; Hot Springs, Buffalo Gap, Martin, Philip, Murdo, and Presho in the southwest/south central; Sisseton, Frederick, Conde, Estelline, Iroquois, Oldham, and Sanborn Central in the northeast/east-central; and Montrose, Armour, Tripp, Scotland, Tyndall, and Wagner in the southeast.