Bush Foundation Work Continues
April 2, 2013
Area residents who have been involved in a regional community enhancement effort gathered Monday, March 25 at the United Methodist Church in Faulkton for a six-hour follow-up meeting. This program is sponsored through a Bush Foundation grant. Faulk County is one of two groups in the three state region of South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota to be awarded grant money from the Bush Foundation, the other being Prairie Vision of the Brown County area. The grant application was initiated by the Faulkton Area Development Board. The board members serve on the various focus groups with others from the various Faulk County communities who have signed on.
With this Faulk County has received a significant amount of money, plus they had a representative at a recent meeting to also provide assistance. Faulk County is viewed pretty much as their poster child as this project develops so the Bush Foundation has a high level of interest in Faulk County’s success. Representatives from the Foundation as well as “community coaches” were present to facilitate the meeting.
At a meeting last September, some work on community goals and needs assessment was begun. Some of the group again met on Jan. 6 at a community meeting. As a follow-up some people also attended a regional enhancement meeting in Aberdeen on Jan. 25.
Through the process, five focus groups have been designated as a result of these meetings. They are: entrepreneurship (Dakota Rising); housing (Home Address);
leadership; quality of life, and financial. At the January meeting area residents agreed to serve on at least one of the focus groups depending on where they had an interest. Some people are involved in multiple groups.
At this point Faulk County has been one of four communities in the state to be accepted into the Home Address project. The primary benefit is that these communities receive some very significant assistance in the form of what they refer to as “coaches”. A coach has been assigned to each community and Faulk County has their attention/assistance for an 18 month period to help facilitate the process up to the point where the community is ready to initiate a “project”. There have periodic webinars that have had topics ranging from what is happening legislatively regarding the importance of rural economic development, to where to reach out for financial assistance and the process needed for young people to tackle a home project and etc., primarily educational/informational type webinars. Faulk County’s coach, Joe Bartman, has met with the group four times and through the grant has the approval to meet with the Faulk County group approximately once a month.
The housing group is diving into the very complex combination of issues, that have developed over time, combined with the current dynamics of increased demand that have resulted in the current lack of adequate housing. According to Roger Deiter, a member of the group, he hopes that with the addition of the findings from the “housing needs assessment” this group will be poised to begin determining what the initial “project”, that best fits the community, needs to be and start the process of “how do we make it happen”. A meeting pertaining to this area of focus was held on Monday, April 1 at the community center. The findings of the housing needs assessment study were presented. It contained some very general statistical information regarding population trends, population age, financial abilities of those seeking housing and such, along with some more specific suggestions on what type of housing projects are recommended given the findings.
The major focus of the Leadership team has been on how to best navigate the generational transition and begin to make the next generation realize the importance of being involved in community activities. The need to “develop leaders” may not be as strong as the need to get them involved. Leaders normally emerge once they are engaged and realize the importance of involvement. The group feels the need to break down some barriers that have always existed between the younger and the older generation and make the younger age group feel as if they have some “say” in how our community is shaping itself for the future. The leadership group has met one time with a small group of four to five young couples in the 25-40 age group and took that first step to break the ice. They expressed themselves and they did it professionally and with good input. That age group obviously has a whole different set of dynamics regarding how they communicate, they have to juggle working schedules and families and such.
Committee members feel that it was very clear that it is not that they do not care, but that they just do not have time nor do they care to spend a bunch of time in meetings with little or no focus. Their message was: tell us what to do, give us a project and we will do what we can. A meeting has been scheduled with this group again on Wednesday, April 3rd at the hospital meeting room at noon to offer suggestions on some specific projects on which this group could begin to collectively work.
The quality of life group encompasses many things. Basically, what are the primary needs of a small community to enhance the quality of life to a point that will attract both
retirees and younger people? Their first “hole in the bucket” issue is a technology gap within the community. A set of “lunch and learn” sessions are being scheduled at the
Faulk County Library to address a part of this issue. (See related story on this issue).
People from Faulk County are more committed, energized and ready to continue the journey than at any time previously. People who have not previously attended one of
the community meetings are welcome and encouraged to attend a focus group meeting in which you might be interested. Contact Stacy Hadrick at 605-347-1195 or e-mail
Stacy.Hadrick@gmail.com or Linda Bartholomew at 598-4312 to sign up and get more information.