| Six
Stevens County Communities Chosen for Training to Reduce Poverty
Six Stevens
County communities have been selected to participate in a community
education and training program aimed at providing local residents
with tools to create a thriving community and reduce poverty.
These six community
teams are part of a group of 23 of communities in the state chosen
to participate in the Horizons Project, administered by Washington
State University Extension. The selected communities each organized
a delegation of local residents who attended a recent regional
“Spotlight” meeting to learn about the program, and
chose to pursue participation.
The goal of the Horizons
Project is to help members of the community develop skills, tools
and practical strategies to address needs specially identified
by that community. The first local program that is a series of
conversations that will begin this January focused on how to build
a thriving community, using a discussion guide called “Thriving
Communities: Working together to move from poverty to prosperity
for all.”
“Local residents
of all ages and backgrounds are needed to take part in the local
conversation circles, either as a participant for a facilitator,”
said WSU Stevens County Director Debra Kollock. “This is
a program for all community members – so individuals of
all ages hear and understand different ideas and thoughts.”
The Horizons
Project is funded by a grant from the Northwest Area Foundation
based in St. Paul, Minn. NWAF’s mission is to fight poverty
in rural communities in eight northern states. The Horizons Project
focuses on providing resources to communities with fewer than
5,000 residents that have experienced declines in population,
income and resources.
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