A new "together we can do it" attitude links residents of Dupree, Isabel and Timber Lake in a partnership to explore new futures for their communities.

Residents of the three north-central South Dakota communities formed the Tri-Community Economic Enhancement Initiative after people from each town completed a pilot project on leadership training called Horizons that is intended to help reduce poverty.

How did it happen?

Sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation, the first Horizons project organized 36 communities, ranging from 100 to 4,800 people, in groups of three for training extended over 18 months from 2003 to 2005.

Horizons was developed to help small rural and reservation communities scattered throughout the eight states once served by the Great Northern Railroad.

The Northwest Area Foundation was established in 1934 by Louis W. Hill, the son of James J. Hill, founder of the Great Northern Railway.

After almost 50 years as a traditional grantmaker, North-west Area Foundation shifted gears in the late 1990s when it began focusing on projects addressing long-term solutions to poverty in small communities in states once served by the railroad: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Iowa. Many of the communities are on or near reservations.

Horizons volunteers said that after spending 18 grueling months learning and studying together, the individual differences between each community were blurred by their common goals.

Before being accepted for Horizons, they were asked to identify people willing to volunteer their time for each of the four phases of the project: study circles, leadership training, community visioning and community coaching and action.

Volunteers had to be willing to carry through with the project's goals including developing a vision for each town's future that addresses poverty.

Additional volunteers were needed to join community study circles that would take a detailed look at their hometowns. Communities completing the program receive $10,000 that can be used for economic development.

In some Horizons communities, volunteers have come and gone from the Horizons team. In others, the same core group of people has stayed with the project.

Horizons has been most successful in communities where new leaders have emerged at each phase of the project to replace or support people who have devoted long hours to the program, according to Kari Fruechte, the project supervisor for the Cooperative Extension Service.

Between training sessions and community meetings, Horizons is demanding, according to Mark Stevens of Dupree.

Stevens estimates that he and a colleague, Dondra Menzel, invested more than 2,000 hours of their own time working on Horizons and projects that evolved from community discussions.

As members of the Aberdeen-based Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sister Pegge Boehm and Sister Darlene Gutenkauf arrived in Timber Lake for a five-year missions ministry just as the Horizons pilot project was beginning.

Sister Boehm said Horizons was an ideal way to learn about their new community and the people who were the focus of their ministry.

The first priority of the initial Horizons project was leadership training, making it difficult for observers to see the benefits of the program, Sister Boehm said.

"A lot of people in town did not see anything actually happening," she said. "We started visioning, laying out projects, but we didn't start the work of developing the towns."

But, for those choosing to follow through with the training, there was a wealth of opportunity to attend seminars to learn to become leaders, manage conflict, communicate with others and build partnerships.

"One of the things that this whole program is trying to re-enforce is the need to build people capacity before you can build economic capacity," Fruechte said.

Horizons has also given Extension educators a new role as resources for the communities they serve.

The foundation paid for Extension educators who became coaches for their assigned communities.

Northwest Area Foundation also covered the cost of guest speakers, supplies and expenses including travel, food, lodging and baby sitters for Horizons team members.

The grant removed financial barriers that might have prevented some people from participating, said Karla Trautman, an Extension specialist who supervises the South Dakota grant.

Horizons organizers elected to start with community study circles before offering the leadership training.

The study circles brought a cross-section of the community together for six two-hour sessions to explore poverty, talk about ways to make a difference and develop a plan to make at least one change.

The circles focused on the demographics of each community. Participants catalogued each town's assets and examined what poverty looks like.

"You get to find out how people in the community feel about certain things," said Britni Ross, a member of the Philip Horizons group.

One study circle evolved into a parks and recreation action committee that rolled up its sleeves and cleaned a riverside park before the Philip centennial celebration last June.

Study circles brought attention to the shortage of day-care that can be a crisis for a young family, said Ross, a stay-at-home mother of two. Philip has lost potential community members because they could not find child care, she said.

An action team has formed to tackle the day-care issue. Another team is looking at options for housing, another critical shortage, Ross said.

The Horizons process revealed several new leaders in the community. In many small towns, the work usually falls on the same 10 people, Ross said.

Similar things are happening in every Horizons community, according to Carolyn Hendricks, an Extension educator who supervised Horizons communities.

She has seen people who haven't been active before become leaders.

"People feel their voice is being heard."

The study circles were followed by five months devoted to leadership training. Each community was expected to have 25 people complete the training.

The leadership training paved the way for community "visioning," a process that brought volunteers from the study circles and leadership training together to lead others in writing a vision or plan for their community's future.

As Horizons moved into the visioning phase, a community blog site was started, linking all of South Dakota's Horizons communities. Members bounce ideas off each other and encourage their community to get involved.

Faith's chief blogger, Nancy Reimer, has increased traffic to her blog by adding more local news and events to the site.

Today, Horizons teams have unveiled their community visions and in the final months of the project are beginning to identify resources and taking action to implement those visions.

"We're seeing things happen in these communities," said Fruechte, the project supervisor. Through specific projects such as the Faith fitness center, people are beginning to see that they can make a difference, she said.

"Listening to the people tell their stories, you see they are people who didn't think they could be leaders," Fruechte said.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com