St. James, MN

The Community Coffee is going to start in earnest in September, but we are still looking for topics to discuss, starting with the new school building proposal. If you need some help with ideas, here are some of my favorite community-building web sites:

• MPR’s The Future of Small Towns Idea Generator - http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/04/smalltowns/
(People, Economic Opportunity, Human Services, Telecommunications, Transportation, Social/Cultural Opportunities, Education, Government, Other. Challenge: find Dave Stordalen’s and Mark Anderson’s posts)
• Project For Public Spaces - Building Community, Creating Places, Using Common Sense - http://www.pps.org/
(Parks, Transportation, Civic Centers, Public Markets, Downtowns, Mixed-Use Development, Campuses, Squares, Waterfronts)
• Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation - http://www.smifoundation.org/
(Grants, Community, Business, Voices, Early Childhood, Bio-Industry, Asset-Based Community Development)

• The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation - http://www.theharwoodinstitute.org/

Other Places To Get Ideas:
• BetterTogether - http://www.bettertogether.org/
• Center For Rural Policy and Development - http://www.mnsu.edu/ruralmn/
• Local Initiatives Support Corporation - http://www.lisc.org/
• Heartland Center for Leadership Development - http://www.heartlandcenter.info/
• New Rules Project - Designing Rules As If Community Matters - http://www.newrules.org/
• Institute For Local Self-Reliance - http://www.ilsr.org/
• Local Government Commission - a nonprofit organization working to build livable communities - http://www.lgc.org/
(Community Design, Economic Development, Energy, Environment, People & Community, Transportation, Waste Prevention)
• Boomtown USA - http://boomtownusa.blogspot.com/
• National Trust Main Street Center - http://www.mainstreet.org/
• The City Repair Project - http://www.cityrepair.org
• Seven Revolutions - http://www.7revs.org
• Community Development Foundation - http://www.cdf.org.uk/
• World Changing - Change Your Thinking - http://www.worldchanging.com/
• The Minnesota Design Team - http://www.minnesotadesignteam.org/
• The Dialogue Project - Building Community Through Dialogue - http://www.thedialogueproject.org/
• COMM-ORG - The Online Conference on Community Organizing and Development - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/
• Freakonomics - The Hidden Side of Everything - http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/
• Heartland Center for Leadership Development - http://www.heartlandcenter.info/
• Rural Policy Research Institute - http://www.rupri.org/
• Governing Magazine - http://www.governing.com/
• Wiser Earth - http://wiserearth.org/

• Northwest Area Foundation - http://www.nwaf.org/

Add Your Own:

The first Horizons money requests were granted at the Leadership Team meeting on Tuesday. The Education Future Squad will get $750 for interpreter services for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) classes. The classes are being held by the Good Samaritan community in May, June and July.

The other grant was $500 to the Green Team Future Squad to get their names on the reusable shopping bags that are going to be sold at grocery stores and around town. Besides being environmentally friendly, the project is a social contribution because the proceeds from selling the bags will go to a scholarship fund for low-income students.

This money comes out of the first $1,500 payment from the Northwest Area Foundation (the parent of Horizons) to St. James. Another $8,500 will be coming upon the completion of the Horizons program.

Another community-building resource is coming to St. James, but pay attention to see how it works.

The Northwest Area Foundation funds Horizons, which is run by the University of Minnesota Extension service. Another program of Northwest Area Foundation is called “Creating a Value Added Community” (CVAC). Both Horizons and CVAC are designed to reduce poverty in rural areas.
Now CVAC has teamed up with the Madelia Model to bring the CVAC program and the Madelia Model bioenergy projects to the communities surrounding Madelia. The CVAC portion is being implemented by Renewing the Countryside. One goal is to incorporate existing community programs like Horizons and Bridging Brown County, so that we are all working together on a regional level.

The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 25, from 1-4 p.m. at the St. James Library, because they want to move the meetings around. They are looking for more people to get involved and learn how to Create a Value Added Community. To get involved, contact Linda Meschke at Rural Advantage.

The October 26 Scenario Planning session was facilitated by David Buerle of Australia.
Here are some of the things we learned:

Forces impacting the world – what are the emerging global drivers:
• Energy consumption is increasing
• Wealth in the US being distributed to fewer people
• Dramatic increase in wealth and workforce size in China and India – and expected to continue to grow
• Decline in US economic power in the world
• Climate change emerging as major global issue
• Media power shifting to internet and away from traditional media

Forces impacting the region – what are the emerging regional drivers?
• Rising costs of energy and transportation
• Area has excellent access to sustainable energy sources and food production
• Increasing ethnic diversity
• Increasing access to technology and media are changing work patterns
• Aging population

Watonwan County is in the center of a “biomass cooridor” of good soils, and good weather for growing. It puts us in a prime position to take advantage of renewable energy projects.

Key drivers shaping the future of Saint James (as determined by workshop participants)
1. Education
2. Community attitude
3. Bridging cultural gaps
4. Responsiveness to change
5. Willingness to invest in the future
6. Types of employment
7. Attractiveness for people and businesses
8. Future of agriculture
9. Availability of capital – poverty/prosperity
10. New energy/biofuel corridor
11. Quality and quantity of labor pool
12. Local/regional identity – “brand”
13. Understanding role of community in and with the region

These were also voted on and are listed above in order of the most votes. But if you add the votes for numbers eight, “Future of agriculture,” and ten, “New energy//biofuel corridor,” then land use issues would bump up to number three or four.

Fighting complacency with a single task force, the Future Squads were set at tonight’s Horizons meeting.

I didn’t count, but there must have been 45 people at the meeting. We came up with a vision statement and four solid Future Squads to work on the issues important to St. James. Two liasons were appointed from each Future Squad. They are:

Education: Shiree Oliver and James Piper (preschool up to higher education)
Green Team: Jill Henderson and Mark Anderson (energy/environmental issues)
Youth: Caitlin Olson, Kristen Shumate (youth issues)
Unity: Emily Boelke, Joe McCabe (engaging the community to work together)

If any of you would like to join a team, contact these people.

When the bus shelter idea became the biggest vote-getter at the Horizons Study Circle group, the first negative comment I heard was that “no one is going to want an ugly bus shelter in their front yard.”

So the bus shelter committee is trying to change that thinking by showing how an installation can be an asset to the neighborhood. The City Repair Project (http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php) has many great stories that should inspire you to want a community structure in your neighborhood. In residential intersections, they build structures that include gardens, flower pots, artworks, a tea station (for free hot drinks), and a kids clubhouse to play games, read a magazine, play with a doll house and other toys. They also have neighborhood poetry garden with poetry books and a book where you can write poetry yourself, an information station: blackboard, bulletin boards, beehive newspaper box, produce station (take and leave fruit and vegetables from local trees, gardens… or bring a present) that was transformed into a recycle/distribution center, neighborhood library

The leader of the City Repair Project calls their community structures “the intersection of community health,” backed up by a study that found the people in a two-block area experienced mental and physical health benefits just from the City Repair Project intersections being built in their neighborhood. They have found the intersections get more eyes on the street, get people talking to each other, and make streets safer and cleaner.

So if you ever hear anyone saying they don’t want “one of those things” on their street, tell them that the way we want to do it would actually improve their neighborhood.