Armour, SD

Category #4. Sustaining action and creating structural change around poverty

What structures have been changed that will enable your community to address poverty in the long-term?

Our participation in the Study Circles and Leadership Plenty helped us create specific goals to reduce poverty and led us to the formation of the committees that are currently working on completing the goals.

How will you monitor and evaluate your community’s progress in reducing poverty?

Our Strategic Plan outlines methods of evaluation for each goal. We’ve posted the plan online and you can download and read it by clicking the link on the right sidebar. One of the methods will be to interview members of the groups the various projects were trying to help to see if they felt the efforts were successful.

What community resources will be needed to sustain the community plan to reduce poverty?

All of our Horizons committees are vital to the success of our poverty reduction efforts. We need to sustain the level of action we’ve started and we need people to continue to participate in our new committees, plus maintain their involvement in our long-time groups such as Community Club. Our Horizons work has boosted attendance at our Community Club meetings. That’s a good trend and one that needs to continue.

What additional resources would make a difference in your community’s work to reduce poverty?

Money, obviously, is always a big help. We also need to continue to tap into partnerships — for example working with high school alumni.

Category #11. Taking action on community

In what ways is your community operating or working differently?

More people have stepped forward to take leadership goals. We’re also enjoying a greater level of participation because our projects have been well publicized and have broad support within the community.

In what new or expanded ways are people contributing to your community?

We learned a lot about each other’s talents during the Study Circles. That’s enabled us to better tap into what people are good at.

How are low income involved?

Everyone is invited to attend our Horizons meetings. While we are working on issues relating to poverty, there is a community feel to it. So, it’s really becoming things we do to be good neighbors.

What structures have been created or changed that will help your community?

Partnerships with groups like the school have made the most difference so far.

What new partnerships have been created , and what difference have they made for your community?

Well, the Parents-Teachers Together group, for example, has opened the door of communication at the school in a big way. The monthly PTT meetings have been well attended and the presentations have been routinely praised as very informative.

Have you learned anything about how nearby communities like yours are taking action to reduce poverty? Do you see any opportunities to exchange information or combine efforts in this work?

That’s where the blogs have been a big help. I think a lot of people are checking out what the other communities are doing and we get good comments from other towns on our blog. Thank you!

Many of us take it for granted that we can read this blog that I am posting. What if it was just a bunch of shapes that you were looking at and wondering “what does that say?”. Unfortunately in our society there are too many people who are unable to read & write. Many of them go through their life without other people realizing it. Illiteracy is a growing epidemic in our nation. 42 million American adults can’t read at all - another 50 million read at only fourth or fifth grade levels. This number of functionally illiterate adults increases by approx. 2.25 million each year.  That is a scary number but with 20 percent of graduating high school senior being functionally illiterate that number is not surprising.

What does this lead too? Well 70% of all prisoners in state and federal prisons are classified as illiterate. 70% of all people entering state correctional facilities have not completed high school and 14% have no high school education at all. 85% of juvenile offenders are classified as being functionally or marginally illiterate. 43% of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. WOW are those some scary statistics or what! Add to that a recent newspaper article stated that 1 in 100 people in our nation are in prison. So in a town of 800 that would figure out to 8 people in prison and with the 70% of them being illiterate that would equate to 5 of those people from our town being illiterate.

Or how about this tidbit of information. Do you know how they determine in SD how many jail cells will be needed in the future? They look at the 2nd grade reading level in our schools.

Yes reading is very important. It is the building block for a successful school experience. If you can’t read or read well all other subjects are going to suffer.

Parents, grandparents, and others one of the greatest gift and advantage you can give a child is to read to them from birth on. The knowledge they gain from that will serve them a life time. As they grow and learn to read let them read to you. It builds their skills and confidence. The next time you are buying a present for a youngster (of any age) consider purchasing a book as the gift. It opens up a whole world of imagination, information and enjoyment.

We live in a society where our youth are not competing for jobs with someone down the street or highway but with people on another continent half way around the world. We need to instill in our youth the importance of an education and the skills they will obtain to take them through life. An education is never wasted and can never be taken away from you.

We are fortunate in our small town to have a nice library and to have an organization that promotes literacy. The local Women in Action group sponsor several reading programs. One is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. This is where Dolly gives books to youth from birth to 5 years of age. The local WIA group pays for the postage. They also help sponsor the summer reading program at the library. Finally they sponsor the Prairie Readers Competition at the school. This involves not only Armour students but students from Tripp/Delmont, Lake Andes, Corsica, Stickney and Dakota Christian. The students have been working hard since before Thanksgiving reading books and practicing for the competition. This is a team of 4 students in a quiz bowl type of setting pitting their knowledge of books against teams from other schools. This competition is on March 31st at noon at the Armour School.  Come see between 250 - 300 students compete  and show their love of reading.

The Armour Round-Up Committee has joined forces with the Cabin Committee to raise money to build two cabins near our Lion’s Park / Lake Alcazar. In previous blogs, we’ve let you know that one of the Horizons projects is to install two cabins at Lion’s Park to provide recreational opportunities for Armour families and visitors.

Our cabin committee had originally planned to have inmates at the Springfield penitentiary build the cabins, which would be moved to sites that would be prepared by Horizons volunteers. As we’ve moved forward with the project we’ve learned that the prison will not have time to build cabins for Armour this year. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they have invited our Horizons group to the penitentiary to tour the cabins they are building and will share building plans and materials lists with us. A group of Horizons volunteers plans to build the cabins here in town.

We’ve now begun our cabin fund-raising campaign and that’s where the Round-Up Committee comes into play. They have installed donation containers at area businesses such as Wilson True Value and the X- Press Mart. Patrons can donate their change from purchases or pocket change for use on the cabin project. We’re very enthused about this joint effort and hope that Armour residents will show their generosity.

If you have any questions about the Cabin project, you can contact Todd Vogt at 724-2400 or Bob Goodnow at 724-2105. Please contact Dana Krull if you would like to make a donation for the cabins at 724-2459 or by e-mail: danakrull at unitelsd.com

Market Your Area — A Horizons Regional Seminar
Tuesday, March 25
Armour Blue Moon
5:30 p.m. — Dinner
7-9:15 p.m. — Seminar

The Heartland Center in Lincoln, NE, helps local leaders respond to current and future challenges in their community by bringing people together to learn how to become better decision makers.

Milan Wall, Co-Director of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, is a management and communications expert with more than 30 years experience in dealing with the critical issues facing American society and culture. Milan will work with SD communities to discover strategies useful for marketing their areas to future residents and businesses.

This event is free and open to the public. Please call Donna Brenner at 724-2818 by Monday, March 24, if you plan to attend so we have an accurate count for the meal. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend this seminar!

An organizational meeting for a having and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class in Armour will be held at 6 p.m. at the Fire Hall. I think the plan is to gather in Armour and then drive to Corsica or Stickney to meet with the instructor. Armour’s EMT service is staffed solely by volunteers. There are only a few EMTs to provide coverage 24-hours a day. New EMTs are desperately needed, so anyone interested in taking the course should try to attend tonight’s meeting.

I am just writing to say thank you to all those that do blog on the website. I know it takes time but I can definately see an improvement in our community ever since Horizons has started. People become more active when they see progress and there has definately been progress. We are a small town and I love small town but we need to keep moving forward or our small town will not exist anymore. I took part in the Welcome Banquet in February and I was glad that people came to support the newcomers and the citizens of the month. I hope that each year it will grow not only with new families but also with the current families showing their support and neighborliness to the newcomers. Thanks to all who were involved.
Nicole