Sac City, IA

     A portion of Sac City’s low-income population consists of older adults.  One key source of support for Sac City’s elderly is the Senior Center, where congregate meals and home delivered meals are provided, along with social and educational activities.  The Senior Center is drab, small, and not fully handicapped-accessible, so one of the local Horizons project goals is to improve the Senior Citizens center.  Initially the work group did not know whether the best route would be to use the existing building or to seek a new site.  Design analysis has indicated that remodeling can alleviate the accessibility issues and organize the existing space more effectively, so the group is proceeding to work on improvements to the existing building, which is a historical landmark and conveniently located downtown.    

     Because of some unique history, a first step was to determine who actually owns the building.  Investigation revealed that ownership has recently passed completely to the County.  When approached, County Supervisors and staff were open to exploring possibilities for improving the facility.  As a first step the Supervisors voted to install all new windows to improve the building’s comfort, energy efficiency and appearance.  The county will provide the funds for this step, and window replacement will take place this summer.  The Horizons Senior Center Work Group will continue to explore possibilities and costs for making more improvements to the building.  No decisions have been made about how to pay for additional remodeling, but the project is off to a good start in cooperating with the county. 

Sherrill

      Sac City Horizons cooperated with the Chamber of Commerce to provide an educational and motivational program designed to increase community involvement in volunteering to support community projects.  Steve Siemens, of The People Builders, presented an informative and exciting program on “The Power of One,” giving numerous illustrations of the impact which volunteers can have on a community, and focusing especially on examples involving efforts to reduce poverty.  Horizons paid the speaker fee, while the Chamber provided hors d’oeuvres, made all facilities arrangements and all publicity.  More than 40 Sac City residents participated in this February 29 event, which was valuable in building real excitement for the work of addressing poverty issues, and which brought about twenty new residents into the Horizons circle. 

Sherrill

      The Community Resource Center committee has had several meetings and the members have come up with a number of great ideas.     

     The core objectives of the Community Resource Center are to make sure community members are aware of the many resources available to help residents in need, and to help them overcome any barriers to accessing those resources.  To effectively meet that goal, the committee is focusing on ensuring that the center will be self-sufficient and in an area easily accessed.  The committee is in the process of exploring ideas for fundraising and is considering requesting donations from various businesses and organizations in exchange for printing their logos on the center’s brochure.  This could conceivably generate enough money to take care of the monthly expenses.    

     There have been several ideas where the center could be located and the committee is currently in the process of researching.    

     The members are very excited about their progress and are working diligently to get the center into operation as soon as possible. 

Sherrill

     The committee has plans to match financial mentors with families burdened financially.  Families who volunteer will be paired with a mentor (a trained volunteer) who will work with them over a period of 6 months to develop basic budgeting skills, and to manage through whatever problems and issues arise during that time.  As an incentive, families who are involved will be eligible for a limited amount of special assistance, using Horizons funds, if special needs arise.  The ultimate goal of the mentoring program is to build skills which will be a new way of life for some families and this program is based on trying to make this transition as painless as possible.  Because of the intensity of involvement, the committee’s goal is to mentor 3-5 families in the first year.     

      The committee is partnering with New Opportunities (local Community Action Agency) to identify interested families and to ensure that any special financial assistance provided does not duplicate something that is already available through another agency. 

Sherrill

      We are finally on the verge of becoming a bona fide, legal non-profit corporation which will enable us to administer the Horizons grant money and other funds we may receive.  The name of this organization, which grew out of the Horizons process, is Sac Partners for Progress, Inc.      

     Several steps in the legal process are complete, and at the June 16, 2008, Horizons Steering Committee meeting a final draft of the by-laws was approved.  The creation of this organization helps to ensure that the work begun with Horizons will continue in Sac City.    

     This is a real milestone.  We are very proud of the accomplishment, and excited  about the opportunities that are created by having this organization in place to contribute to building a community where all residents can thrive. 

 Sherrill 

       We decided our Horizons groups needed a little shot in the arm and planned a big meeting to be held at the Recreation Center.  All of the five groups were represented with their members plus there were a number of people present who hadn’t previously committed themselves.  So the groups were able to entice some new people to join them.      

     Carol Groen, president, gave an inspiring talk and then we split up into our separate groups and had a brainstorming session.  It’s amazing what fantastic ideas can come out of these sessions.    

     After we had brainstormed for awhile, a representative from each group got up and presented their ideas for the future and informed us of the things that had already been done and how far along they were in meeting their goals.  After each presentation, the audience was encouraged to participate and share ideas of their own. I believe this meeting was just what we needed to get our groups out of the doldrums and excited about what they were planning on doing.  The individual groups are now meeting on a regular basis and things seem to be getting done.  Sometimes it takes a little “shaking up” for things to fall into place and start running smoothly. 

 Sherrill   

      In May Horizons was invited to participate in a Resource Fair.  This was an event where a number of agencies, dedicated to help lower income families and persons in need, were all available in one location to meet and talk with people.      

     There was a nice turn-out of agencies and people and it gave everyone an opportunity to talk about their needs and see that there were possibly organizations that could be of help to them.     Our Horizons booth had a number of people stop and talk to us about our different projects.  We had brochures and our County Resource booklets available, and people staffing the booth that had information about the five Horizons projects:   senior center, resource center, mentoring program, scholarship program, and volunteer program.    

     It was great seeing everyone trying to work together to accomplish the same goal – alleviating poverty.  People working together and sharing ideas is so much more productive than trying to go it alone. 

Sherrill   

The Steering committee has set a dinner meeting for April 21, at dinner being served at 5:30pm and meeting to start at 6:00pm, at the Sac Community Recreation Center. At this dinner meeting, all 5 committees that were established at the last visioning meeting will meet to discuss their visions for their goals.  There will be flip charts and a lot of discussions. Carol Groan set up a nice aggenda to keep all the leaders on task. At the end of the night, a quick description will be give by each committee on what their plan is and when their next meetingwill be. It should be a very eventfull evening.

     Three members from the steering committee were able to go to Jefferson to a workshop offered by Horizons.  This educational meeting, which started at 9 a.m. and lasted until 2:45 p.m., was one of the most informative and worthwhile meetings I have attended in some time.  Generally when you attend something of this kind, there is a certain bit of boredom and at least a small bit of time when you wonder why you’re there.  But this workshop caught my attention and held it firmly right up to the last minute.  The people making the presentations were exceptionally well informed and had a lot of information that was imparted to us in a clear and interesting manner.

     The final event of the day was playing a game that involved making decisions for a community for the years 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2020, and then we were shown the results of these decisions in the year 2030.  It was really quite fascinating and caused people to realize that each decision they make for their community should be well thought out and that their minds should be open to all ideas and suggestions.

     We three brought home with us some valuable new ideas that should be very helpful in our various committees.  In addition, the enthusiasm and excitement generated by the interaction and conversation with the attendees from the other towns was fantastic.  It is so encouraging to hear the success stories from other towns who are facing the same and yet different problems and how they have overcome them.

     I am sure that all who attended this workshop felt they spent their day very productively. 

Sherrill/Amy 

      We here in Sac City are very fortunate to have such dedicated and conscientious officials running our city.  A number of them, both current and newly elected, are involved and active in our Horizons project.We had one as facilitator of a study group, three participated in the study groups, 7 attended the visioning meetings, 1 is currently on the steering committee, and the City Administrator was instrumental in pulling together the original Horizons steering committee and getting the project going in the community.

     It is very important for all the citizens of the community to take an interest and become active in the betterment and well being of our city by trying to alleviate poverty.   And it is gratifying to see that we elected individuals who are taking their responsibilities seriously and have become so deeply involved with an organization whose main purpose is to help Sac City prosper and become a better community by helping to reduce poverty.                                                                                              

Sherrill/Amy