NDSU Extension Service Seeking Struggling Communities

The North Dakota State University Extension Service is looking for small communities struggling with poverty, loss of population and economic decline.

The Extension Service has received funding from the Northwest Area Foundation to assist 15 more North Dakota communities through the Horizons program. The communities must have fewer than 5,000 residents and a poverty rate of at least 10 percent.

“Many North Dakota communities fall into this category and we would like to partner with them on this project,” says Lynette Flage, NDSU Extension community leadership specialist and Extension’s Horizons program coordinator.

Horizons is an 18-month program that helps communities explore residents’ perceptions about poverty, which isn’t just a lack of money, but a lack of resources. The program also helps communities develop and implement plans to become stronger, better places to live and trains people to become leaders in their communities.

The 15 communities will be the third group of communities to receive assistance through the Horizons program since the NDSU Extension Service and Northwest Area Foundation formed a partnership in 2003. Twenty-six North Dakota communities and one from South Dakota have benefited from this program.

The Northwest Area Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul, Minn., that works to reduce poverty in an eight-state region - North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Extension staff will meet next month with residents of communities interested in participating in the program.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about the program or having his or her community participate should contact Flage at (701) 265-5200 or lynette.flage@ndsu.edu. The application deadline is Aug. 21.

More information about the program also is available online at http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/horizons.

NDSU Agriculture Communication