Horizons group to hold community meeting Monday
Kevin Cederstrom, New York Mills Herald–Published Thursday, February 7, 2008
The New York Mills Horizons community vision group is holding a meeting Feb. 11, 5:30 p.m., at the school. The meeting is open to the public including all past and present participants in the program, as well as a chance for new people to get involved in this community vision process.
The agenda includes an overview of Horizons and what the group has accomplished to this point, marketing, discussions on the blog site, the Horizons Team Work Plan, and Future Squads update. The Future Squads, four focus groups formed earlier in the Horizons process, consist of Economy, Quality of Life, Volunteerism, and Leadership.
The purpose of these groups is to find ways to better serve the community through ideas such as improving the economy, promoting energetic leadership in the community, helping various volunteer groups to work together, and how to carry out specific ideas such as starting a community garden in New York Mills.
Economy – support and assist agriculture, entrepreneurship and established business support
Leadership – Locating, training and mentoring visionary leaders for NY Mills’ future
Quality of Life – Addressing outdoor recreation, culture and arts, and other issues impacting quality of life
Volunteerism – Unify volunteer efforts, support service organizations, engage new volunteers, mentor youth and volunteer recognition
The public is invited to attend the meeting and encouraged to get involved with one of the four Future Squads.
The Horizons program, sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation and brought to New York Mills by the University of Minnesota Extension, is a community leadership program aimed at reducing poverty in rural and reservation communities with populations of 5,000 or fewer. The program is about the changes a community can make to move from waiting to leading, from talking to action, from control by few to the participation of many, and from indifference to pride. Ultimately, it is about community leadership that can act to reverse a community’s economic and population decline and move toward prosperity.
It explores the perceptions and the sources of poverty, recognizing that it isn’t always just about lack of money. The program focuses on poverty, because poverty impacts everyone in a community. Horizons builds stronger community leadership, acknowledging that leadership is as important as good roads, great schools and clean water.