Outposts – The Blandin Foundation Blog

Strengthening Rural Minnesota

Blandin Foundation Meets with Itasca area stakeholders

Feb 28

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On January 26, 2012, the Blandin Foundation kicks off a series of Listening Meetings throughout the Itasca County area communities that comprise its “home giving area.”  New Blandin Foundation President Kathy Annette will meet with local community members over the next several months to hear about opportunities and challenges in their area. This feedback will help to strengthen the Foundation’s understanding of each community’s priorities.

Scheduled Meetings

Spotlight on Student Success

Feb 7

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Early childhood, Education, Minnesota, Rural, Uncategorized | No Comments

A recent Growth & Justice report—“Whole Towns Coming Together for All Students”—shines the spotlight on rural and greater Minnesota communities that, through community engagement, have come together to find new ways for all students to succeed in the ever-changing economic and culturally diverse landscape.

Report author and Growth & Justice President Dane Smith profiles and analyzes different avenues for student achievement, whether it be a specific program or a comprehensive approach spanning from “cradle to career.”

Checkout the eight community models featured:

·         Grand Marais: Cook County Higher Education

·         Grand Rapids: Itasca Area Student Success Alliance

·         Brainerd: Bridges Career Academics and Workplace Connection

·         St. Cloud: District 742 Student Success Campaign

·         Willmar: West Central Integration Collaborative

·         Northfield: Northfield TORCH

·         Rochester: Integrated Science Education Outreach (InSciEd Out)

·         Worthington: Nobles County Integration Collaborative

To learn more about the report, click here to watch an interview with report author and Growth & Justice President Dane Smith.

New report shows Minnesota is ready for innovation in government

Jan 25

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Some very interesting findings were unveiled this week about possibilities and challenges for redesigning the way Minnesota government entities work together. 
  The report, Focus on Outcomes, harvests learning from six regional gatherings of city, county and school board leaders in November 2011.  The report highlights three critical lessons:
1. Redesign is facing some barriers to change.  Changing the way services are managed or delivered is never easy, and it hasn’t been for our local leaders working to redesign services in their communities.
2. Leaders agree that five essential elements are needed to redesign local governments.  Barriers are not permanent obstacles, and many local leaders have moved past them.
3. Minnesota’s local governments are ready to innovate.  In fact, they’re already doing it.

Blandin is a partner in this conversation through its work with the Beyond the Bottom Line initiative, a consortium of leading Minnesota foundations.  The primary partners sponsoring this report, and their websites:

Association of MN Counties

League of MN Cities

MN School Boards Association

Bush Foundation/In Commons

Making Progress toward Real Representation

Jan 4

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Blandin Foundation, Expand Opportunity, Inclusion, Native Americans, Rural | No Comments

Go Run! American Indian women can do this! This message repeatedly resounded at the GO RUN convening on November 18-20, 2011 at the Deep Portage Learning Center near Hackensack, where twenty-eight American Indian women gathered to share knowledge and resources with the objective of facilitating a conversation centered on developing political leadership.

GO RUN is founded on the ideal that real representation involves listening to all voices in the political landscape of rural Minnesota.

With politically-experienced American Indian trainers, such as Nevada Littlewolf—a Blandin Community Leadership Program alumnae, participants were encouraged to share their passion for their communities, while pinpointing the issues facing them. Personal stories provided the fodder to explore and create political platforms.   

GO RUN organizers believe that by providing American Indian women with the nuts and bolts of political leadership, they will be triumphant in the polls thereby expanding the spectrum of real representation.

GO RUN trainers include the following alumni of the Blandin Leadership Programs: Nevada Littlewolf, Elizabeth Towle Scott, Sally FineDay, Prairie Rose Seminole and Diane Gibbs.

To read full article, click here.

Leadership Matters!

Sep 13

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Blandin Foundation, Community leadership | No Comments

Northwest Minnesota gathers today in Bemidji to think regionally and act locally.  Blandin Foundation invited alumni of its leadership programs to gather to explore the region’s trends and to imagine new ways to frame issues, build social capital and mobilize resources around a shared regional vision.

Nearly 100 people are gathered for this event, the first of six regional gatherings hosted by Blandin Foundation and partners in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the Blandin Community Leadership Programs.  More than 6,000 rural Minnesota leaders have participated in Blandin community leadership training, leaders from all walks of life and nearly every rural Minnesota community, since its first cohort.   For more, visit www.BlandinFoundation.org.

Blandin Foundation staffer Becky Adams joins in welcoming 100+ energetic alums of the Blandin leadership programs

Partners honored for community work

Aug 4

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Blandin Foundation, Broadband, Community leadership, Economy, Grants, Inclusion, Minnesota | No Comments

Thirty community projects have been selected as winners in the 2011 Minnesota Community Pride Showcase competition sponsored this year by InCommons, MinnPost.com and Minnesota State Fair.  The competition recognizes collaborative work to improve minnesota towns and neighborhoods.  We were delighted to see that many Blandin Foundation partners were selected as winners:

Rabideau Conservation Academy and Learning Center, a Blandin Foundation grantee; Faribault Summer Youth Programs, a program contributed to the competition by Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP) alum Adrienne Falcon of Northfield; Redwood Rainbows 4-H Club Recycling for Community Events, contributed by BCLP alum Pat Dingels of Redwood Falls; Northfield LINK Center, contributed by BCLP alum Janet Lewis Muth of Northfield; Earth Fest Green Inventors Contest, contributed by BCLP alum Ardy Nurmi-Wilberg;  Itasca Water Legacy Partnership, a public policy partner and grantee; and Lac qui Parle Computer Commuter program, a broadband initiative partner of the Foundation.

Congratulations to all competitors and winners!  Check out their exhibits at this year’s State Fair Community Pride Showcase.

Act fast! Community Pride Showcase nominations due tomorrow

Jul 12

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Community leadership, Expand Opportunity, Minnesota, Rural | No Comments

Know of a community project that succeeded thanks to strong collaboration in your community? Nominate it for the Minnesota Community Pride Showcase.

The project, sponsored by InCommons, highlights “collaborative work already going on in Minnesota towns and neighborhoods to improve quality of life” in Minnesota communities, including rural communities.

InCommons will select 30 project to share their work at the State Fair, and receive a $500 award. There’s already a smattering of submissions from rural Minnesota counties. Plenty of opportunity to raise up great work being done across the state.

But you have to get a move on — nominations are due by 12 noon  on July 13 (that’s tomorrow!).

Seeking Citizen Solutions

Jul 12

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On July 19, 20 and 21, the Bush Foundation of St. Paul and InCommons are bringing Minnesotans together in Grand Rapids, the Twin Cities and Rochester to offer policy makers new ideas for real, sustainable solutions to our state’s budget challenges. Interested in being part of this conversation? Visit http://www.incommons.org/citizensolutions.

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Driving toward a drop-in center

May 27

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Community leadership, Expand Opportunity, Minnesota, Native Americans, Rural | No Comments

Michael Wade (center) visits with guests at the Virginia Indian Center open house in late April. The center is open daily, and offers free internet connection, food, clothing, and links to area human service resources to Native Americans and others in at-risk situations.

For Michael Wade, every minute holds the possibility to change a community.

“Give me a half-hour, I can help someone move into a new home. Give me an hour, and I can start a food shelf,” says this resident of Virginia, Minnesota, and driving force behind the  new Virginia Indian Center, a drop-in center for Native Americans.

Ten months ago, Wade knew such a facility was sorely needed in a community that had gone more than five years without a hub to connect those at risk with the resources they needed. He just wasn’t sure how best to address the need.

Last fall, in community leadership training offered by the Blandin Foundation to residents of the Virginia area, Wade’s next steps became clear. Conversations with the 23 other participants from Virginia confirmed the community’s need and boosted his confidence. With insights from the training sessions, Wade changed his approach. 

“It was helpful to learn the different ways people learn — audio, visual, kinesthetic,” he said. “Once I knew what kind of learner I was — more visual — I started communicating differently about the project, in ways that used my strengths.”

Response to his revised approach was powerful. In the coming months, he rallied support from area banks, churches, human service organizations, and city council. He located and refurbished a building, secured computers and high-speed internet connections, developed support groups for men and women, gathered donations of furniture, clothes and appliances — and created a food shelf.

The Virginia Indian Center opened its doors April 5, two weeks before Wade’s graduation from Blandin’s leadership program. 

Like the dozens of other BCLP leadership alum in the Range’s Quad Cities area, Wade believes success in community work means doing it yourself, but not alone.

“Your community is your community. When you get out in community, things get done.”

Collaborating for kids

Apr 19

Posted by Blandin Foundation in Blandin Foundation, Early childhood, Education, Itasca County | No Comments

Children First! Children's Fair

Children's Fair: half Disney, half continuing ed

It all started in a corner of the town’s Target parking lot in 1999 and today it takes two hockey arenas to contain it.  In just four hours on April 16, more than 3,000 children and caretakers gobbled up the resources and fun of the 13th annual Children First! Children’s Fair in Grand Rapid, Minnesota. 

Half Disney World and half continuing ed for grownups, the fair is completely focused on the success of the region’s children.  Children First! Children’s Fair draws together all types of organizations dedicated to children and is completely free to visitors.

Collaboration and leverage are hallmarks of education outreach in Itasca County, a rural region of 40,000 residents.   Originally an initiative of the Blandin Foundation, Children First! now is coordinated by the Itasca Area Schools Collaborative.  Seven school districts in Itasca and neighboring counties formed IASC originally to focus on shared technology needs and have expanded to continuing education and other shared services.  Invest Early is another of the region’s collaborative efforts focused specifically on early childhood services for disadvantaged children and their families.