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News from the Heartland Center
This issue of Visions from the Heartland continues our
venture into the digital era, now complemented by our Facebook page and Blog,
both available through links on the Heartland Center's home page: www.heartlandcenter.info.
Our first webinar this winter, offered jointly with our
colleagues at the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, attracted participants
from Alaska to Mississippi and Texas to Maine.
Participants tuned in from their offices, conference rooms and, in at
least one case, a city auditorium!
Registrations continue to flow in, the latest from Australia. We think this response confirms that
community leaders and community development professionals are looking for
continuing education opportunities delivered to your homes and offices through
web-based programming.
We also are convinced that face-to-face training continues
to play a vital role in the scheme of learning options. Last year, for example, we developed and
delivered a professional leadership training program for a national rural
health association combining webinars with a face-to-face, capstone
workshop. As we continue on our own
learning curve into long-distance learning, we hope you will join us along the
way.
Vicki Luther and Milan Wall, Co-Directors
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Attendance Impressive for Community Strategic Planning Sessions
As you may recall in the last e-Visions, the Heartland Center was conducting community assessment and strategic planning for Henderson, Nebraska, a community of 986 people located 65 miles west of Lincoln. Three data collection efforts were utilized, including key informant interviews, an online Community Capacity Questionnaire and three focus groups, one composed entirely of youth.
Two town hall meetings were facilitated by Milan Wall and Kurt Mantonya of the Heartland Center in order to guide Henderson and rural York County residents through a strategic planning process. These town halls were grounded in Appreciative Inquiry where participants go through the four phases of Discovering their past, Dreaming about their future, Designing a preferred future and Delivering results. The first town hall, held in November, 2009, with approximately 86 people in attendance, served as the kickoff and took participants through the first two phases.
In January, 2010, Heartland Center staff facilitated a second town hall, with approximately 70 people in attendance to present the findings from the data collection. After the presentation, the final two phases of Appreciative Inquiry process were completed. At the end of the evening, four community priorities were established that included: Attracting and retaining young people, housing development, business development and building a community center. A task force made up of town hall participants was established for each of these priorities and discussion on next steps and adding additional members concluded the evening.
The Heartland Center has conduct these town halls for the past five years in several communities in Nebraska, helping them identify priorities for community betterment projects. The process requires only a few hours and brings a lot of energy and excitement into a community. If your community would like to explore such a process, please contact Kurt Mantonya at kmantonya@heartlandcenter.info.
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Assistance Expands for Non-Profit Boards
At the Heartland Center, we have longstanding experience in
providing training and facilitation for local and regional non-profit boards,
ranging from community organizations to social service agencies to public
bodies. Recently, this experience has
expanded to a national level.
Co-Directors Vicki Luther and Milan Wall each have facilitated weekend
planning retreats for trustees of two non-profits in the health care
field.
Two of the retreats focused on developing strategic plans
for the organizations. Another led to an
action plan for fund-raising to support education and research. In both instances, board members pitched in
to specify goals and objectives, set priorities and develop implementation
plans with anticipated outcomes and deadlines.
One board member wrote afterwards to say that our facilitator "did a
fantastic job" and "the entire board was excited by the outcomes."
We often design these sessions using a planning framework
known as Appreciate Inquiry, or AI. This
framework starts on a positive note, celebrating and capturing lessons from
past successes as a way to drive planning for the future. We oftentimes employ Appreciative Inquiry as
a community strategic planning framework, as well, as indicated in the article
about Henderson, Nebraska, on page 1 of this issue.
To learn more about the Heartland Center's training or
facilitation for non-profit boards, contact either of our Co-Directors, Milan
Wall (mwall@heartlandcenter.info)
or
Vicki Luther (vluther@heartlandcenter.info).
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Webinar Series Continues
The Heartland Center's joint webinar series with the RUPRI
Center for Rural Entrepreneurship got off to a great start in January with the Heartland
Center's webinar on "Rural Communities Can Thrive in the 21st Century." This month, the
RUPRI Center continues the series on February 18 with "Entrepreneurial
Coaching--From Crisis to Economic Growth."
Here are the other topics and dates in this series:
- March 18, 2010 Plowing New Ground--Refreshed Leadership Development for Revitalized Economies
- April 15, 2010 Energized Youth--Energized Communities
- May 20, 2010 People Count--Rebuilding Rural Communities with People Attraction Strategies
Each webinar starts at 12 noon Central time and ends at 1
p.m. For more details on this exciting
webinar series, please visit our webinar page at http://www.heartlandcenter.info/webinar_reg/
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Tips for Leaders
Is Your Organization, Volunteer Group or Committee Having a Hard Time Getting New Leaders Involved?
Ask the question: "Who's Not Here?"
In order to answer this question, members of a community group have to understand the composition of their community. What groups or individuals should be involved in order to have a truly representative community organization? Which groups are missing from the organization (or the meeting or the project)?
Understanding the make-up of the community helps in analyzing the leadership pool so that certain segments of the community can be targeted for specific recruiting efforts.
This can also be considered as an "insurance policy" for a community action project since making sure that the group is inclusive is the best way to build in cooperation and ownership from the beginning.
Answering this question assumes, of course, that efforts will be made to involve those not present, as a way of making sure that all parts of the community are well represented.
This is idea number one from the Heartland Center's "10 Ideas for Recruiting New Leaders," which is in what we call our "Number Series," geared as a short synthesis of ideas from practice and research in rural and community development. To purchase 10 Ideas or any of our books, please visit our publications page.
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About the Heartland Center
The Heartland Center is an independent nonprofit organization
developing local leadership that responds to the challenges of the
future. The Heartland Center is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska
with a field office located in Kerrville, Texas. |
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Want a Free Book?
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During our winter promotion, if you purchase Your Field Guide to Community Building, you will receive a free copy of 8 Challenges Facing Community Leaders. Our full selection of publications can be found here.
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Offer Expires: February 28, 2010
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