Presho, SD

What community resources will be needed to sustain the community plan to reduce poverty? One of our March questions that needs answering…COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS are needed to help clean and paint the inside of the building we will be renting from Chad Johnson at the N. end of main so that we can start bringing in racks and shelving that is also needed at this time. I am excited to get this project off the ground finally. Teresa has gotten a business plan put together and the board had their first official meeting. So one of the things we need to look at is the resources to get this project moving ahead. This could definitely reduce poverty when we have the opportunity to offer clothing and household goods at a greatly reduced price to local residents and, hopefully with advertising, other communities as well. Our residents are our most valuable resource we have! Money, paint, cleaning supplies, racks, shelves, counter, storage containers, etc. are small things that are needed. Once the store is open people, again, are the resource we need to frequent the Thrift store for it to thrive. There is a lot of community interest in this project and so far the Change Presho canisters have done pretty well to start with. We would like to be able to put some of this money back into the community businesses as well by purchasing the supplies we need. But most importantly, as already stated, volunteers are the most needed resource right now. We will also need volunteers to run the store once we get it off the ground. There are great, fun ways to reward these volunteers, too. Call and find out how we plan to do that!! Contact Michelle Lintvedt or Teresa Shook.

In what new or expanded ways are people contributing to your community?
The thrift store name contest got 53 entries, 40 from people that have never been involved in the Horizon II project.
2 board members of the thrift store are emerging leaders that are new to our projects.
I have received several calls about donating to the thrift store.
Area groups are wanting to volunteer time to get the store ready to open.

The name of the Thrift Store has been decided, Thift Store and More. The winning entry was by a local youth, Brody Ness, he has won the $25 in Chamber Bucks. He entered his name at the Farm and Home show in February.
A board has been selected and all the paper work to open a business is starting. The Thriftstore accepted donations from the church rummage sale March 15 and I am already receiving calls on donations of furniture to sell and racks to use.
There was 53 entries to the name contest so the community is getting involved in this project.
Thank you to everyone that is participating in getting the thrift store going.

The contest was started at the Farm and Home Show and will continue until March 14th. I have received several replies and am excited for the Thrift Store Board to make a decision. If anyone would like to suggest a name please contact me at 895-2368. We are giving $25 in Chamber Bucks to the winner!!

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders?
I think we used to try to recruit in a larger non personal way, now we are trying to look at our community and ask ourselves who could we invite to help us.

Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership?

A younger segemnt of our population is getting involved in the Horizon projects. Local clubs are seeing a greater number of students participating. Horizons is targeting Jr High and High School students to start blogging.

At the February 25 meeting we decided to meet on Monday, March 31st. We will be doing a blog training at the school. The meeting will start at 6 in the Home Ec Room, everyone is asked to bring bars or cookies for the blog training. The training will start at 7.
We also decided that we need to have 1 person in charge of the monthly meeting, I have the sign up sheet. Please let me know if you can a month.
March-Dawn Keyes
April-Teresa Shook
May- Sandi Neal
June-Carol B
July-
August-Michelle
September Deb Smith
October-
November-
December-
On your month you are in charge of the food, agenda and reminders.
We also decided to meet the 4th Monday of the month, I know March is the 5th Monday, but we had to deal with Easter.
Please get as many people as you can to come to the blogging training. Thank you. Teresa

We need more volunteers to man the booth at the Farm and Home Show!! We still have about 3 hours open and that is having only one person there at a time. Even if you can only stay for 1/2 an hour please let the public know that you support Horizons and what we are trying to do for the community.
Please let me know ASAP if you can be there on Feb 23.
There will be wireless internet access, so we can show the blog, if you have any ideas what you think we should showccase at our booth please comment. Thank you

Launch ‘08 is a one-day event advancing entrepreneurship education in
SD on Thursday, February 28, on Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. The 2008 conference features two tracks: Educator track is geared toward those who are interested in integrating innovative and creative thinking within their respective disciplines. This year’s conference features the following internationally-renowned speakers: Ed Sobey, PhD, global evangelist for creative learning and founding Director of the Northwest Invention Center, The National Inventors Hall of Fame and National Toy Hall of Fame; Kathleen R. Allen, PhD, a nationally recognized and respected leader, consultant, speaker and author of numerous books on entrepreneurship as well as the Director of the University of Southern California Marshall Center for Technology Commercialism; and Timothy M. Stearns, PhD., holder of the Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies and the executive director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreurship at California State University-Fresno.
If you are interested in attending Launch ‘08, email Martha at martha.landes@sdstate.edu (registration deadline is February 15)

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.