Dear Rochester Community members,
Date: 11/1 Time: 1-6pm
Location: Swede Hall
FREE dinner, Child/elder care will be reimbursed.
If you haven't yet seen the program overview, see below.
Thanks for your interest in building Rochester's future!
Donna Weaver Smith
Program Overview
When it comes to creating a thriving community, it’s
the community members themselves who are the key to success.
The Horizons program is about the changes a community
can make to move from poverty to hope, from population and economic
decline to prosperity. This initiative is for rural communities of
fewer than 5,000 and with poverty rates of at least 10 percent.
Open to all community members, Horizons focuses on
practical strategies and tools. More specifically, it provides
locally-delivered training, skill-building, and coaching to
strengthen community leadership and civic engagement systems.
Experience has shown that small communities can thrive if they have
a strong leadership system.
Horizons is an 18-month program with four
required activities of participation. Communities must meet the
thresholds for each activity within defined timeframes before they
can move forward. Each threshold is connected to skills and
achievement that help strengthen a community.
 | Study Circles—Community conversation and action ideas focused on poverty. 12 hours during a 2-month period involving at least 30 people. The goal is for communities to learn what poverty looks like and what it can do about it. Momentum grows as the community builds skills, involves more people and becomes increasingly strategic. |
| LeadershipPlenty — Leadership building using LeadershipPlenty training. At least 20 people give 30-40 hours o f time. LeadershipPlenty is a curriculum that helps communities focus on developing community leadership. Through this program, communities learn to understand the leadership structure and skills needed to address poverty and sustain community action and change over time. |
| Community Visioning —Community visioning and planning focused on leadership growth and poverty reduction. This involves the whole community. Some communities members get competitive, seeing who can involve the most people! Community members come together to create and adopt a shared vision for poverty reduction. |
| Community Coaching and Action-- Idea implementation. Delivery organizations and others provide the community with support, coaching and additional resources as they put their plans into action. |
