Creating a thriving community through large-scale dialogue and collaborative action.

People in communities across America want to live in a place where they have the chance to thrive. This is true in all kinds of places: small towns, rural areas, urban neighborhoods, American Indian reservations, and others. We need to share our vision of what kind of community we want. We need to take action to change things so that we all can thrive.

Dialogue-to-change programs help people build the trusting relationships necessary for long-term change. People from diverse backgrounds and experiences develop trust, understand each other's experiences, and work together on solutions.

Projects & Partnerships

In 2006, Everyday Democracy (then the Study Circles Resource Center) partnered with the Northwest Area Foundation on a community leadership program called Horizons. The program aimed to reduce poverty in small rural and reservation communities facing economic decline and demographic change. Horizon’s goal was to help communities understand poverty, help them commit to action to change it, and bring about lasting change in their community.

The 18-month initiative took place in 200 communities in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Using Everyday Democracy’s training and tools, these communities engaged their residents in dialogues to promote understanding and action around critical poverty issues. The discussion guide, Thriving Communities: Working together to move from poverty to prosperity for all, led people through five sessions:

• How are we connected to our community and to poverty?
• What does poverty look like here?
• Why is there poverty in our community?
• Reaching our vision to reduce poverty and moving to action.

Many Horizon communities continue their efforts to reduce poverty. Please see the Success Stories, Communities and News Articles tabs on this page to learn more.

The Communities

Sitting Bull College, North Dakota

Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, North Dakota, works with 18 tribal communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota using the Horizons program to help rural communities move from poverty to prosperity. Horizons—a project of the Northwest Area Foundation, in partnership with Everyday Democracy and the Pew Partnership for Civic Change—has engaged citizens in 163 communities across the Upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Northwest.

Horizons is a multifaceted program. Participants talk about how poverty affects their communities, then build community leadership to help manage change in the community.  Participants in Horizons communities affiliated with Sitting Bull develop a clearer understanding of the effects of chronic intergenerational poverty on families and communities. They also come to understand the importance of partnerships in creating prosperity, and that leadership comes in all forms. Finally, the communities are led through a holistic process to engage Native communities to envision their future and reclaim balance.
www.sittingbull.edu/horizons/

Warren County, North Carolina

How can greater student success benefit the entire community? That’s the question that people in Warrenton, North Carolina, and nearby counties have been asking for the past two years in dialogue-to-action programs to bridge racial and ethnic divides and to narrow the achievement gap. Beyond trying to “fix the schools,” organizers helped citizens focus on a wide range of community issues, including juvenile justice services, family support, and recreation.

Action teams are working on creating stronger community and school connections and overcoming community apathy. The work—coordinated by the Rural School and Community Trust and community partners and funded by a grant from the Kellogg Foundation—aims to help build community-based infrastructures and programs to move vulnerable rural North Carolina youth and families out of poverty and improve their ability to live and thrive in their hometowns.

Washington State Horizons

Washington is one of the seven states in the Horizons project (see Sitting Bull College above). Technology has been a hallmark of the Washington program; more than 70 volunteers from 23 participating communities have been coached on how to start blogs and use other online tools to record their progress, build community, and have fun.

Blogs in the Evergreen State are being used like interactive community scrapbooks to promote community projects (like Habitat for Humanity, in Springdale), report on local events (such as a generational poverty workshop, in White Salmon), showcase videos and slide shows of local people taking part in Horizons, provide links to important services, and offer a place for people to express visions and goals for their community’s future. A directory of the Horizons blogs in the state can be found at http://horizonspr.blogspot.com/ http://horizons.wsu.edu/

Turning the Tide on Poverty

This program is giving residents of rural communities in the South an opportunity to look at the impact of poverty in their lives and to take steps to build a better future. An initiative of the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), this project is being piloted in communities in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.

Turning the Tide was inspired by Horizons—a three-year project designed to help people fight poverty in the Northwestern United States.

Faced with the challenge of working across a large geographic area, Everyday Democracy used live, interactive video conferencing to deliver advice and trainings for state- and county-level Extension staff, preparing them to train and coach organizing teams at community sites in five states.

At each pilot site, participants in dialogues will identify local resources and work together to come up with practical solutions for fighting poverty. The pilot round of dialogues will be completed by June 2010.

In addition to in-kind support from Everyday Democracy, the Farm Foundation is providing support for Extension efforts, and Kettering Foundation is funding research on how public dialogue enhances civic involvement.

You can follow the development of this exciting project at http://srdc.msstate.edu/tide/ .

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Tools

A new how-to guide that draws on Everyday Democracy's experience working with rural and reservation communities as part of the anti-poverty program, Horizons.

Organizing Rural & Reservation Communities for Dialogue and Change

Download the guide

Organizations working on issues around poverty:

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Focuses on preserving and strengthening what it calls the “foundations of freedom” (limited government, private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and a strong foreign policy and national defense) through scholarly research, open debate, and publications.

The Brookings Institution
Focuses on independent research and innovative policy solutions.

Carsey Institute, a research institute at the University of New Hampshire.
Supports policy research that informs policy makers and practitioners engaged in increasing opportunities for social mobility, and building healthy, sustainable communities.

Annie E. Casey Foundation
Seeks to restore the strong connections between vulnerable families and the circumstances vital to building stronger families and more supportive neighborhoods.

Cato Institute
Seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Works at federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. Conducts research and analysis to inform public debates over proposed budget and tax policies, and to help ensure that the needs of lowincome families and individuals are considered in these debates.

The Heartland Center for Leadership Development
Focuses on leadership training, citizen participation, community planning, facilitation, evaluation, and curriculum development. Its programs and publications stress the critical role played by local leadership, as communities and organizations build capacity for sustainable development.

The Heritage Foundation
Formulates and promotes conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.

Dr. John Iceland (University of Maryland) poverty links page
A collection of poverty research and information, including Dr. Iceland’s work, as well as links to many other poverty websites, research centers, and government sites.

Joint Center for Poverty Research (Northwestern University / University of Chicago)
Supports academic research that examines what it means to be poor and live in America. Concentrates on the causes and consequences of poverty in America and the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing poverty.

Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Seeks to deepen understanding of the causes of and solutions to racial and ethnic disparities and hierarchies. Focuses explicitly on Ohio and the United States, but also on the Americas as a whole, and on the larger global community.

MDRC, a nonprofi t social policy research organization focusing on low-income issues.
Seeks to learn what works in social policy and to affect the design and implementation of policies and programs in five main areas: family wellbeing and child development; public education; transitions to adulthood; low-wage workers and communities; and barriers to employment.

National Center of the Area Poverty Research Centers Program (University of Michigan)
Conducts and promotes multidisciplinary, policy-relevant research on the causes and consequences of poverty. Also provides mentoring and training to young scholars.

National Center for Children in Poverty (Columbia University)
Identifies and promotes strategies that prevent child poverty in the U.S., and improves the lives of low-income children and families.

Poverty and Race Research Action Council
Links social science research to advocacy in order to address problems at the intersection of race and poverty.

Project Money
Works with people to help them achieve their financial goals and learn how to deal with their money. Project Money is also hosted by Project Read at the San Francisco Public Library.

Public Agenda, poverty and welfare reform issue guide
Public Agenda stimulates meaningful public debate with its “Choicework” discussion guides, which present three or four different points of view about how to address a particular issue. Public Agenda does not advocate one approach over another, but seeks to clarify alternatives and promote discussion on issues.

Rural Poverty Research Center
Commissions, supports, and conducts research that leads to informed policymaking and effective practice.

The Rural School and Community Trust
Involves young people in learning linked to their communities, improves the quality of teaching and school leadership, and advocates for appropriate state educational policies, including the key issue of equitable and adequate funding for rural schools.

Comprehensive Discussion Guides

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Organizing, Assistance and Evaluation Materials