Help for Rural Idaho Communities

 Fifteen southern Idaho communities are participating in a University of Idaho program that’s designed to empower citizens to make rural Idaho a place where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Barbara Petty, University of Idaho Extension educator describes the Horizons program as “getting down to the grass roots level to address poverty issues and bring leadership development and training opportunities to small rural communities. There are many communities throughout Idaho that are eligible for help because they have populations under 5,000 and poverty rates of 10 percent or more. Such communities are often overlooked by government programs due to their small size. In the Horizons program, a community is assigned a coach from University of Idaho Extension and who lives in that community to help build needed skills and achieve progress on the community’s plans and goals. In essence this teaches people how to help themselves.

 (Petty) “We’re really looking to train anyone who’s interested in learning about leadership. Anyone that’s learning how to run a meeting, how to manage conflict, how to plan for action, how to look at your community and identify assets that your not taking advantage of, so it’s really targeted not necessarily at those already in leadership positions, but to anybody in the community that has any interest in leadership.”