Sisseton, SD

The Sisseton Horizons group recently met with me (Cheryl, the Horizons Community Coordinator) and we had a chance to discuss some of the great things going on in the community as part of the 6 week Spring Sweep Campaign. I also had a chance to ask the group about things they see as barriers or things that we need to continue to work on to sustain the momentum for future change. Here’s a few of their thoughts…

Poverty

• Some of the comments from the group included realizing that many people in the community have a disconnection or a lack of a sense of belonging. People havea  “what’s in it for me” attitude instead of a sense of pride and wanting to get involved as a civically engaged community member.
• “Their houses are like garbage pits inside, so why would they care what the outside looks like.” The group talked about people in poverty not living by the same rules and obligations as the middle class, a concept learned from the Ruby Payne books. The same idea applies to acceptable behavior, like having respect for property and things, not littering, no spitting and overall behavior that is typical y learned in the home–whether that’s a positive or negative influence.

Vision

• The group talked about being really energized by the recent events and projects, but also realized that it takes a lot of effort to get it done and a vision or plan to make it a reality.
• The group discussed wanting to be inclusive of everyone’s ideas and plans, but realizing that not everyone has the same passion to get those ideas and projects accomplished. So there are lots of projects that could be done, but it takes finding the right person or group who is willing to take it on as a project.

Attitudes

• Attitudes can have a big impact on the ability to get people involved and willing to be part of a community process. There has recently been a new blog created that got a lot of attention. Many of the posts were negative and really showed the bad side of what’s happening in the community, but didn’t focus in on any of the good things. Combating negative attitudes can be a full time job, and it’s important to keep reporting on the good stuff. Actions speak louder than words.

Thanks to all who attended the meeting on Monday. Keep up the good work that you are doing in your community!

We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…

How can your community sustain the changes it has already made in its leadership?

• We can sustain the changes by supporting the people who stepped up, and are now leaders.
• Try to involve new people

We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…

What changes are you seeing in the way community leadership is exercised or carried out? 

• People who used to be “strong” leaders are now backing down a few steps to let other people step up to the plate and be a leader.

How is it different?

• Well it’s different because the people who you used to really count on, are still there, but they choose not to take on a very large responsibility.  It’s not that they don’t want it, but they are making the leadership position more spread out among community members/leaders.

 How has your community changed after LeadershipPlenty training? 

• People have come to realize what a leader actually does, and how many people in the community they can see as leaders. 
• Mostly it identified leaders within our community. 

In what ways have leadership skills been improved/enhanced? 

• I see more people being involved with community activities. 
• People are taking a risk and being a leader.

What is different? 

• We have more people as leaders now.

What changes are you seeing in the way leadership is carried out? 

• Like I said before, the “strong” leaders are not taking a few steps back, and sometimes they have a tendency to not voice their opinion.

How decisions get made in your community? 

• I see that everybody has a say in mostly everything that a community does, but some people are not willing to step out of their “comfort zone” and speak up.  As of right now, people are adjusting to the new leaders and someday they’ll voice their opinion.
• Some people are voicing their opinion.

What difference does the involvement of low income people make in community leadership?

• Involvement of low income people make community leadership different because they bring new ideas, one’s that a middle or upper class person might not have thought about.  
• They bring in more diversity because they represent mostly everybody.  Believe it or not!
• They also help bring about issues that are a very large concern to them, and maybe not a large concern to the middle or upper class. 

We asked the Horizons participants to give us their feedback about how their community is changing in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Increasing Leadership and Community Change. The next few posts are the responses to questions about each of those topics…

How has your community leadership expanded? 

In one instance: there is a new group taking over an activity that the committee from last year’s event resigned after several years on the activity. A new group of parents have stepped up to make sure the event will still succeed as it has in the past several  years.

What changes have been made in who is now involved in leadership positions?  For instance:

ü     Are more people participating in leadership?  The leaders seem to be the same people as there are always individuals that seem to want to help with several activities, but refuse to be “in charge.”  There is more of  co-leadership positions rather than one person in charge. It seems to spread out the responsibilities.

ü     Are different kinds of people (representing more sectors or parts of the community) now participating in community leadership? I don’t really see more sectors at this point and time. There always has to be an issue of dispute that makes people get involved. They seem to think that is the time to get in and change things.

ü     Does the community leadership reflect the community’s demographic profile?  I don’t really see that it is represented on the percentage of the community’s demographics.

ü     Are more low income people participating in community leadership? To some extent. It seems to be people of all income levels that are community minded.

What changes have been made in the way your community recruits and trains new leaders?  The people always seem to think others will step up and be in charge as leaders and sometimes things will roll right along and then people lose interest and meetings just don’t seem to be a priority. Although they still want the end product to show results, but they are just “too busy” to get involved.

Sustains existing leaders?   As I said before, it seems to be the same people that are the leaders and maybe part of the problem is that those people are so used to taking charge, that they just do it and don’t ask for help. It is probably just a matter of retraining those people too.

Written by Debbie Pageler

Sisseton recently added another business to the town, Pamida.  It is located by one of Sisseton’s main highways, Hwy 10.

 This creates more revenue for the city and brings in more “goodies” for the community members. 

 Sisseton also has an Alco and a Family Dollar. 

This is a picture of a pretty sunset that we didn’t get to drive in! The pink sunset has the rolling hills along the setting, and the clear still water has a pink tint to it also.  The clouds are pink, makes you not want to have such a pink picture!

Jennie Lynn and Karyn Moen went on an adventerous trip to Webster, S.D. First we left Sisseton at approximately 5:45, and rode along the long dusty old trail to Webster, S.D.  We arrived at 6:30 on the dot, but the meeting was to start at 6:30.  Needless to say, my trusty right handed lady didn’t bother to tell me that the Middle school was on the east side,  instead of me thinking it was on the west side.  We approached a red stop light. Patiencly waiting, I decide that there isn’t a cop coming just to stop and go, but that was only a thought.  When we get down to the end of the block, after the 45 seconds of waiting, the road was blocked.  So we went around the block, found many vehicles, but we didn’t find Cheryl Jacobs vehicle, so we knew that we weren’t in the right spot, and so we cruised around the block and found her car.  During the trip Jennie Lynn called Cheryl and left her a nice sweet voicemail saying that we were running late.  Cheryl told us that she would have her phone on her, well…she left it in her car, but we made it without being late, they just waited for us! 

Welcome to CommunityBlogs.us. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!