How We’ve Changed
Brett Nachtigall, Star publisher and member of the Children & Youth ATF, blogs answers to two questions:
How has your community changed since joining Horizons?
Prior to Horizons, there were already a lot of people in the community who had a lot of good ideas to improve our community. Horizons however was able to bring those people and their ideas together, under one common goal.
Until Horizons was introduced to us in Hot Springs, the people and their ideas had little direction and it was difficult to draw the lines between everyone’s goals as they oftentimes seemed unrelated.
Now when I tell someone about a project that was generated from a Horizons discussion, people immediately recognize the bigger picture and that the project has the support of a large part of the community.
During the Horizons Study Circles, there was a lot of discussion about our youth and how we could help them. Our Children and Youth Task Force, which was created out of the Study Circles, brought all of the various ideas together. In addition, we also gained further input from the entire community though a survey of both children and their parents. Based on all of the input we accumulated, I’m confident we are heading in the right direction by working towards opening our very own Boys and Girls Club.
Without Horizons providing the catalyst for our efforts, I do not believe we would have been able to get all of the people and their ideas together, under one common goal, to make this happen.
Is your community more hopeful about the future? How do you know?
I do believe the community is more hopeful about the future. I can feel it in myself and can see it on the faces of my fellow Youth and Children Task Force members. With our current plans of opening a Boys and Girls Club in Hot Springs, there is a genuine feeling of excitement about what we are doing. We all have big dreams about what our work will create. But what is most exciting, is that we all believe that the dream will come true because we have the support of Horizons and the guidance of an internationally successful program like the Boys and Girls Club.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn addition, we also gained further input from the entire community though a survey of both children and their parents. Based on all of the input we accumulated, I’m confident we are heading in the right direction by working towards … […]
January 30th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Kelli Juhl comments:
The Horizons study circles affected me quite profoundly and has influenced the direction I have taken with my graduate school work and the direction of Keep Hot Springs Beautiful. It is insightful for me to understand where the community is coming from so I can tailor our programs to best serve the community and provide what IT needs. However unlikely it seems, poverty and the environment go hand in hand because our prosperity rides squarely on the presence and quality of our natural ‘capital.’ In my opinion, Horizons in and of itself has not accomplished what I had hoped it would. But, I think it has educated many critical people in the community who have the ability to influence the direction of the future - out of poverty.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Kelli says Horizons did not have the direct impact she hoped for. Then she names some pretty wonderful impacts in her personal life (her direction in graduate school, how a sustainable community and lifestyle operate to alleviate poverty) and the organization she leads, Keep Hot Springs Beautiful. That organization indeed makes us beautiful — a desire expressed by every single study circle. As the leader of KHSB, Kelly writes great columns for the Star — how to be sustainable, frugal, and feel good about it. They are not only useful, in this writer’s opinion her advice and leadership
are working to alleviate poverty. Thank you, Kelly.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
As a fellow member of the Children and Youth Task Force, I share the enthusiasm that Brett spoke of. I have seen some positive awakening to our community needs. Most people I speak with about regarding Horizons, has a good outlook as to it’s influence in this community. There is more hope and it reflects in the responses I hear when speaking about a project and there is a lot of hopeful feedback regarding the Boys and Girls Club.
Unfortunately quite a few people gave up on Horizons and its hopes of helping this wonderful community and its dealing with poverty. My hope is that some of those who were excited in the beginning, will once again get that fire and begin to be involved again.
February 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am
Kelli refered to “natural capital” in her comments. I thought you might like to see some related information. Dr. Cornellia Flora, Mary Emery and others from the North Central Region for Rural Development located at Iowa State University have proposed a method of looking at community resources in the form of capitals:
Natural, Cultural, Human, Social, Political, Built, and Financial. You can find more at:
http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/projects/commcap/7-capitalshandout.pdf
Our own Cheryl Jacobs has created a series of Extension Extras that you might find helpful in understanding this perspective. They are located on our web site at: http://sdces.sdstate.edu/CIL/pubs.cfm