Northern Idaho towns build on strengths, reduce poverty

by Julie Fanselow

November 13, 2007 | | Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Perched on a glittering blue lake of the same name, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is a favorite spot for people with money to burn. Whether it’s a $220 round of golf or a gourmet dinner for two, creature comforts and conspicuous consumption abound.

The story is similar an hour to the north on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, where boutique shopping and year-round recreation drive the local economy. But near Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene, smaller towns and rural areas find themselves hiding in prosperity’s shadow. South of Coeur d’Alene, motorists whiz through the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, where nearly one in four children lives in poverty. Almost 60 percent of the households in Boundary County north of Sandpoint have incomes of less than $40,000 a year, and the child poverty rate is nearly 30 percent.

Communities like Bonners Ferry – the seat of Boundary County - and the Coeur d’Alene Reservation are eager for ways to expand their economic vistas while preserving their traditional values and small-town way of life. Enter Horizons, a local leadership program aimed at reducing poverty and expanding opportunity in communities of up to 5,000 people across the Upper Midwest, the Great Plains, and the Pacific Northwest. The program is funded by the Northwest Area Foundation and coordinated by local partners (including the University of Idaho).

Study circles – large-scale, inclusive dialogues that lead to measurable change – are an important part of the Horizons process (which coaches communities through a unique combination of dialogue, leadership development and visioning). Earlier this year, more than 700 North Idaho residents in 14 communities – some of them community “clusters” of several nearby towns – took part in discussions around the topic “Thriving Communities: Working Together to Move From Poverty to Prosperity for All.” They discussed questions including “Why is there poverty in our community?” and “What does poverty look like here?”

“It became obvious how isolated people are from one another,” says Carla Marratt, a Coeur d’Alene tribal member who serves on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation Horizons steering committee. Although the reservation includes four small towns – Plummer, Worley, Tensed, and DeSmet – many people live in rural areas. People are acquainted, but they really don’t engage with one another.

Participants in the Couer d’Alene Indian Reservation’s Horizons program exchange ideas at their Vision Launch.

Angel Merritt, a lifelong resident of Bonners Ferry and facilitator in its Horizons program, says the program “opened my eyes to the fact that Boundary County has poverty. You don’t see people on the street begging for food, like on TV,” she adds. But just the same, when several families need to share a home, parents must work multiple jobs to make ends meet, or grandparents on a fixed income are caring for grandchildren, poverty’s impact is felt.

Participants also delved into how poverty isn’t limited to having a low income. It can also mean spiritual poverty, relationship poverty, and poverty of meaning, says Laura Laumatia, coach for the Coeur d’Alene Reservation program. Horizons is a way for communities to counter all forms of poverty by taking stock of the assets they already have and forming alliances to make the most of those resources.

Following the study circles, each community chose three people to receive training in LeadershipPlenty, a 30-hour, nine-module curriculum developed by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. These trainers returned to their communities to lead at least 25 people from all walks of life through the LeadershipPlenty process. “Here’s the important thing,” says Mary Schmidt of the University of Idaho Extension, which coordinates Horizons in the state. “It’s about we, not me. It’s about mobilizing the entire community, not just developing one individual’s leadership skills.”

 

 

This fall, the Horizons communities have begun the work of moving the study circles and LeadershipPlenty ideas to action. At visioning rallies, participants crafted a statement sharing what sort of community they want to be. At subsequent vision launch sessions, participants formed action teams to work on projects that will make each community’s vision a reality.

Teams on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation are pursuing community vitality (with a focus on identifying existing assets and resources), community pride (promoting a clean and attractive environment), communication and leadership, and lifelong learning. In Bonners Ferry, teams are working on identifying community assets, improving communications and connections, and building economic vitality, with a focus on job creation.

One recurring theme across Horizons communities is the desire to create stronger networks to leverage the many resources that are already in place. In Bonners Ferry, for example, local agencies have been partnering for years on environmental protection and social service issues. “This is a very collaborative community,” says coach Sarah Howe.

The story is similar on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, where people have pulled together to build one of the region’s top casinos, a health-care clinic, and a new public transit system. “I think we’re doing better than some tribes,” Carla Marratt says. “I don’t know if it’s due to the proximity (of Coeur d’Alene) or the initiative and creativity of our leadership. Maybe it’s a combination of both. But I think we’re not even tapping the extent of what we could have.”

Although the Horizons program generates a lot of energy, communities must work hard to sustain their momentum and meet a goal of involving at least 15 percent of the population in the visioning process. Marratt – a single parent and graduate student who currently lives in Spokane yet works in Plummer - says it’s a struggle to keep people involved because of health issues and schedule conflicts. “I’m as busy as anyone else, but I want to see a difference. I’ve become aware of how I need to be accountable with what I want to see in this community.”

“We need to change the prevailing conversations in our community from a negative slant to a positive slant,” Marratt says. Noting that only 100 people out of 1,500 on the reservation attended the visioning rally, Marratt adds that it can seem like “an overwhelming task to generate that kind of change through everyday conversations with people. But it’s made a difference for me. I’m having those conversations, and I’ve even been asked to run for tribal council.”

Organizers also face uphill battles in convincing people that their efforts are worthwhile. Wilma Bob, a home-schooling parent who is on the Coeur d’Alene steering committee, says that when she first became involved, she didn’t believe it would make a difference. But she stayed involved, and now, she says, “I can admit there is a little light where there wasn't before.” Yet Bob says that she is only one person, and that ending poverty will mean breaking out of a poverty mindset that sometimes seems to permeate reservations and other rural communities.

Marratt agrees, noting that while some poverty is situational based on circumstances, some is generational, with people having an inborn sense of hopelessness. “For that to change, it’s an internal job,” she says. “You have to change your own mind of what you’re capable of.”

The action teams will work between now and next June to broaden and deepen their leadership pools and gain traction while under the Horizons umbrella. After that, the two-year process will officially conclude, and communities will be on their own, but with strong reserves of resolve and new skills to keep moving ahead. “Horizons is allowing us to get to the next step,” says Sarah Howe, the Bonners Ferry coach. “It’s helping us say: Let’s not run out of steam. Let’s kick it up and get things going.”

Learn more: Poverty