Fifteen communities from northeastern to south-central North Dakota have been selected for the third Horizons community development project that began in late September.

The North Dakota State University Extension Service will deliver the program to the communities during an 18-month period. The Northwest Area Foundation of St. Paul funds the project.

The communities taking part in this round of the Horizons project are: Dunseith, Fessenden, Fordville, Fort Yates, Hannaford, Lakota, Leeds, Marion, McClusky, Minnewaukan, Napoleon, Rolla, Sheldon, Tolna and Underwood.

The project’s aim is to reduce poverty and develop leadership in small rural communities in the upper Midwest. The communities selected have populations of 5,000 or fewer people and a poverty rate of 10 percent or more.

Each community will work with a coach during the four portions of the project, which focus on the development of study circles, Leadership Plenty sessions, visioning and strategic planning processes, and seven months of executing a working action plan toward the community’s goals.

The program’s goal is raising human capacity, according to Lynette Flage, Horizons project director.

“We work hard to get a diverse group of people to identify issues in their community and then connect them to the resources they need to succeed,” she says.

Initial meetings in each community were held in late September. For more information on the project, visit http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/horizons.

NDSU Agriculture Communication