Greenfield, IA

One of the first tasks completed after our Action Forum was the creation of a community directory. Many directories have been distributed, but that doesn’t substitute for actually connecting with some of the service providers. During the Horizons Community Celebration a number of programs set up tables and visited with community members attending the supper. Public health, the Neighborhood Center (fuel assistance, food pantry), Child Care Resource and Referral, Social Security, Master Gardener, Methodist Church Food Pantry, local banks, and Henry A Wallace Country Life Center all had someone there to visit with people. Of course, copies of the resource directory were available, too.

The Adair County Hot Shots 4-H club and Growing Strong Families program had kids activities which were very popular. All segments of the community were represented in the approximate 175 attendance. Families with young children, teens, business community members, religious leaders, elderly, and residents with disabilities.

The Food for All Task Force established the celebration as a drop off point for food or cash to support local food pantries. 105.85 in cash was collected along with approximately 200 food items. These items help stock nearly empty shelves at the two local food pantries.

Governor Chet Culver announces the names of the 48 school districts in Iowa receiving state funds for 2008-2009 under the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children. Nodaway Valley is one of the districts !   This amounts to approximately $3000 per student with a projection of 50 participants totalling $150,000 brought into the local school district and community.  In additon 5 new jobs will be created with two certified teachers and 3 paraprofessionals to be hired for the program.  The Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children was established in 2007 when Governor Culver signed House File 877. The purpose of the statewide preschool program is to expand the opportunity for Iowa’s young children to access quality preschool environments and enter school ready to learn. With these newly approved programs, the state will be providing access to approximately 4,341 more 4-year-olds. Governor Culver said, “Every child in Iowa deserves the best start as they begin their educational journey. With this announcement, we are offering a greater number of Iowa’s youngest citizens the opportunity for a solid beginning.” Districts applied for the competitive state grant to provide at least 10 hours a week of quality preschool instruction through collaborative community partnerships. A total of 161 school districts applied for the grant. The Iowa Department of Education selected the school districts to receive funding based on several criteria. Priority was given to high-poverty districts currently without preschool programs. Also considered were collaborative efforts with community early childhood partners and district size. The 2008 legislature appropriated $15 million for 2008-2009, which is the second school year the preschool program has been available to Iowa school districts. The planning done as part of the Horizons project was instrumental in preparing the grant. The grant readers noted the high level of planning by the community, planning to serve low-income children, and commitment to quality early children education. Now that the grant has been awarded, a number of the Quality Early Childhood Care and Education task force will be helping with implementation.

The jobs task force asked Jason White, Midwest Partnership, to provide insights into the challenges of attracting good paying jobs to our community and possible ways to overcome challenges. Jason met with the steering committee and other interested community members to explain the need for community infrastructure. We are already working on some infrastructure issues such as quality childcare and high quality education. However, prospective employers also want to be able to visualize themselves within the community up and running. This is why spec buildings have been a staple of the economic development world. Spec buildings are expensive and often don’t have all the features that a potential business wants. Jason shared the concept of Virtual Spec Buildings with the group. This is being used in other states. He showed actual examples of a virtual spec building and explained how it could be customized based on the type or size of business.

As a group, we have the least amount of internal expertise in job creation so bringing an expert like Jason was very important. He helped the group see a bigger picture of job creation and how investing in cutting edge technology might be able to help attract employers without tying up a lot of money in a building. It was also reassuring that some of the issues that we do have more expertise in and have been actively working in are part of a strong infrastructure.

America Saves provided a unique opportunity for the financial education group to develop a learning event. Financial education group members put on a workshop for kindergartners and their parents.  Articles appeared in the paper and flyers went home from school.  The workshop features activities for the kids:  making “piggy banks”, counting money, and playing games. Parents attended their own session where they learned about saving instruments, simple tricks for saving, and how to protect their child’s identity.  Parents were encouraged to set up a saving account for their child or add to an existing one. Each family that meets their saving goal before the 2008-09 school year starts will receive a $50 saving bond.

“I think the project was a great learning experience for both kids and parents. The kids enjoyed experience and the parents appreciated the project. I hope that we can continue to have interest in this project and continue it well into the future” –Carol Baudler, committee member/ project organizer.

This will be a project that will benefit our community in more than one way.  Of course it will help families learn about money management, but it will also help children to start their own “nest egg” for the future.  The project was also a great way for families to spend time together to learn new things. 

The financial education committee worked with Adair County Extension to apply for an America Saves grant and received $500 to assist with this carry-out of this effort. The reaction from participants were so positive the group is considering offering to another age group.

The two new providers in the area are continuing to offer services to more families whose children need care. The Horizons Child Care group kept the YMCA informed of grant opportunities and actually got them technical assistance to write grants. They succeeded by securing grant dollars to purchase new equipment for the child care center. One of their first purchases was toddler-sized tables and chairs in order to let toddlers eat at their own level and be comfortable. The child care group is planning to continue to keep an eye out for funding, professional development, and other opportunities to help ensure the child care centers around are offering the best services available.

A new Family Rewards center has opened up for families with children up to 18 months. The purpose is to reward families with points towards supplies (diapers to feeding supplies to toys and strollers) for doing things like attending parenting classes, going to child’s well-baby visits, and adopting healthy behaviors such as quit smoking or completing high school. Horizons participant Tracey Mavis is the director of the brand new program and is using the connections she developed as part of Horizons to help connect families with support systems in the community.

The Horizons Quality child care group is a leader in helping exploring Voluntary preschool in our school district. Nina Utterback, Maureen Lonsdale, Joanie Finck, Angie Powell, and Janelle Kralik are taking an active role in helping the Nodaway Valley school district explore options and ideas for a possible 4-year old voluntary preschool program. They are partnering with school officials, preschool programs, and young families to identify the characteristics of quality preschools and consider ways to enhance preschool education within the community. During the first session it was exciting to see we had great agreement about what quality involves. The challenge now is to figure out how the community can work together to make sure we provide the best preschool education in possible for our children.

Connecting people with resources continues to be one of the goals of our horizons project, but sometimes no resources exist, especially in the case of an emergency. Emergency financial assistance is now available for not only 0-5 year olds, but also 6-18 year olds through funding from the Creston Cluster Decat project. After hearing about the situations of several families with 0-5 year olds who took advantages of the emergency fund to meet some very basic needs, it feels even better to know that more kids can be helped now. Elementary students, middle schoolers, and high schoolers whose families are struggling with medical bills, aren’t getting mental health help because of costs or know that their student is struggling with school because they need glasses but can’t afford them will be able to seek help out solutions through the newly expanded Emergency fund.

Quality child care was identified as an issue early on in the study circle process. Over and over again the need for affordable, accessible, and quality child care was discussed. At our first visioning meeting a young mom who had recently moved to town stood up and told her story about being new in the community with very little money or support network and having to leave her child in a bad situation while at work because nothing else was available to her. This put a real face on the problem that the child care action group had already documented by finding out the limited number of slots available in licensed child care centers and registered in-home providers in the county. At our recent steering committee meeting it was exciting to hear that one new registered in-home provider has come on-board and is offering extended hours and weekend care. The in-home provider is also certified to offer crisis care. The local YMCA now has their provisional license and is providing regular child care for infants and toddlers. There is still a long ways to go in the area of quality child care but progress is being made.

The child care action group applied for a grant to do a community needs assessment, but did not receive funds. They are working to identify sources of funding for the YMCA child care center and other ways to promote quality parent and caregiver education.

As part of the America Saves program and America Saves Week, February 24 – March 2, a program is planned for kindergarten students and their parents. The children will participate in money related activities including making a piggy bank and counting money, while the parents learn about savings, budgeting, and banking. The goal is to get every family to set a saving goal during the program whether it is to establish an emergency fund, save of expenditure like a summer vacation, or save for their child’s future education. Each family will set a savings goal and anyone meeting their goal will receive a $50 savings bond for their child. Hopefully 90% of the kindergarten families participate. This project will require a strong partnership with local banks. A $500 grant was received from the America Saves program to help fund this program and they requested additional funding from the Horizons program fund.

Another activity for this work group includes establishing a money management mentor program where local volunteers will be available to help an individual or family learn and understand money skills such as developing a budget, balancing a checkbook, etc. Several community members have already volunteered to serve as mentors.

 Some needs just can’t wait. Your hours have been cut and you are out of money with another 3 days until your paycheck arrives. You have no diapers for your 18 month old and without disposable diapers, you can’t take them to day care. Do you miss work and get further behind on your bills? This is an actual example of the use of the newly established Emergency Fund in Adair County.   Seven children under 5 have been served in the six months since Empowering Adair County Foundation started funding the Emergency Needs project based on the needs identified during Horizons study circles.  Response time in all seven cases has been under 24 hours. A personal meeting is set up to help families connect with other longer-term resources (i.e. Hawk-I, heating assistance, Food assistance program).  In cases like the one mentioned above, this fund was the only place that the parent could get diapers and other personal hygiene supplies for children. The diapers were actually delivered to the day care center and the referral meeting was held in a private office when the parent picked up their child.  The cost to the community was very low and the parent didn’t miss any work allowing her to be more self-sufficient.