The Horizons program reached 33 communities and over 6,000 Minnesotans in rural Minnesota from 2003 to 2011. These Minnesotans took action and made their communities more vital places to live, work, and play. This blog consists of over 300 entries dating back to 2007 and is archived here in the hopes that it will remain a source of information and inspiration to other communities.

It is no longer the case that rural means farming. It also means manufacturing, food processing, research and development, a myriad of small businesses, mining (of course), and countless other industries and areas of innovation.

The farms are still there, however, and so are the young farmers and farm workers. We’ve met and written about a handful of them already, and now we want to hear from you.

Tell your story at http://www.minnpost.com/ruralmn/2011/08/25/31071/voices_of_young_minnesota_farmers_will_you_tell_your_story

… [these] findings might provide a better strategy for local economic development officials. Encouraging local businesses would be better for growth than recruiting larger firms from outside the county.

“We can’t look outside of the community for our economic salvation.” Goetz said. “The best strategy is to help people start new businesses and firms locally and help them grow and be successful.”

via the Daily Yonder

Many folks in Horizons communities—including those in the Voices of Rural Minnesota cohort—are working on perfecting their story. Their story is the hook by which they will snag that community-building grant, recruit an eager volunteer, or re-energize their network for the next project.

Too often, technological trappings like the now-ubiquitous PowerPoint get in the way of a good story rather than supporting the presenter. My Extension colleagues and I attended a great training from our own Denise Trudeau Poskas a few months ago where we refreshed our knowledge of engaging presentation techniques.

A recent blog post from the Harvard Business Review relates teaching swimming to presenting.

Just as swimming lessons involve multiple repetitions, so too, do we ask our participants to repeat a short pitch several times. The unexpected benefit is that, as presenters develop their delivery skills, they also improve their narrative flow. The reason this occurs is also two-fold:

• Verbalization creates familiarity and therefore fluency with the content
• When presenters are freed from having to relate to their slides, they can concentrate more on their stories

This is great advice for experienced and new presenters alike. Practice makes perfect. What is your story?

Over the past many years, Horizons and U of M Extension have played host (or guest!) at many community meetings—some good, some great, a few not so great.

Too often, meeting organizers jump straight to meeting content and finalizing agenda items and don’t give enough attention to the setup. The organizer who spends time attending to the meeting space, food, and other logistics will find that participants are less distracted, more able to give their full attention to the important tasks at hand, and will go away knowing that their time and talents have been recognized and respected.

Grassroots Solutions offers a handful of essential ingredients for setting up a successful community meeting. Among them:

• Meet people where they are - at a time and place that’s convenient and comfortable for them.
• Allow time and space for participants to talk with one another and build relationships.
• Provide food, transportation assistance and, in some cases, childcare and homework support.

Read the entire list on Grassroots Solutions blog.

What tips do you have for readers who may be convening a community meeting?

All nonprofit organizations in West Central Minnesota are invited to apply for the Board Leadership Academy - a customized training program designed to help non-profit board and staff members work together to strengthen their organizations' performance and success.

Up to 10 nonprofits will be chosen for the program, which involves three fall sessions. Participants will learn how to develop board and executive staff leadership, receive one-to-one coaching, and enjoy learning opportunities through networking and peer interaction. Featured topics will include board development, marketing, fundraising, strategic planning and evaluation.

To be selected, a non-profit organization's executive director and at least two board members must commit to participating in the Board Leadership Academy. All applications are due Friday, September 9, 2011.

Download the Board Leadership Academy Application.

Contact Holly Witt at Bremer Bank with questions--hswitt@bremer.com, 320-589-1424 x0552.

The Housing Preservation Grant program is a grant program which provides qualified public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, which may include but not be limited to Faith-Based and Community Organizations, and other eligible entities grant funds to assist very low- and low-income homeowners in repairing and rehabilitating their homes in rural areas. In addition, the HPG program assists rental property owners and cooperative housing complexes in repairing and rehabilitating their units if they agree to make such units available to low- and very low-income persons.

See http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=103613 for more information or to apply.

The Rural Business Opportunity Grants Program provides support for activities designed to promote sustainable economic development in rural communities with exceptional needs through the provision of training and technical assistance for business development, entrepreneurs, and economic development officials and support to assist with economic development planning.

Examples of activities eligible for support include the development of export markets, feasibility studies, development of long term trade strategies, community economic development planning, business training and business-based technical assistance for rural entrepreneurs and business managers, establishment of rural business incubators, and assistance with technology-based economic development. The application deadline is August 1, 2011.

The July issue of Community Dividend, a publication of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, features an interview with Paul Mattessich of Wilder Research. Mattessich discusses the importance of measuring impact in community work and offers a few tips for creatively assessing impact in inexpensive ways:

[Community Dividend]: What about the cost? Is it possible to measure impact without spending a lot of money?

[Paul Mattessich]: It’s important to understand that it does cost money to evaluate impact. There’s no way around it. That being said, there are some low-cost, creative ways to do at least certain parts of your evaluation. One way is to avoid the cost of collecting data by using measures that are already being tracked. For many communities, there are existing data on housing conditions, crime rates, work force participation rates, poverty rates, and other demographic characteristics that are available through the U.S. Census Bureau or local government agencies. Another approach is to identify data that are easily obtainable at very little cost. For example, if the intended outcome is to increase the number of businesses on blocks that have been largely abandoned, it’s very easy to walk down those blocks and count up how many storefronts are vacant and boarded up, and then walk down those same blocks one year later and see if that number has changed. A third way to save money is to team up with similar organizations and use a single evaluation or survey. An evaluation that is cost-prohibitive for a single organization can be affordable if three or four organizations are willing to share the cost of the design. A nonprofit can also establish its own logic model by using free or low-cost guides that are published by institutions that do this type of work. That doesn’t mean an evaluation can always be done without professional help. Sometimes it does require hiring a social scientist or an economist, but there are many situations where it does not.

The following is a list of 14 recorded webinars and supporting materials from the 2010-2011 Horizons program. Please feel free to share these webinars with anyone who may benefit.