The City of American Falls sits in the heart of Southeastern Idaho, on the banks of the Snake River and the shores of the American Falls Reservoir. The city’s 4,100 residents enjoy the rich heritage and history of the westward expansion of the United States. Originally settled as a supply stop along the Oregon Trail, American Falls is now a commercial center with access to the Union Pacific railroad and Interstate 86. The economy is dominated by agriculture, particularly the growing of sugar beets and famous Idaho potatoes. In addition, a variety of light manufacturing facilities are located throughout Power County. A plan to build a gasification plant is even in the works, which will boost employment opportunities. However, American Falls is already dealing with a poverty of adequate and affordable housing. So, even though the potential growth of job opportunities and new residents is a positive, there is much concern over how to accommodate new residents, compounded by the outdated sewer and water systems. The downtown area is home to several businesses, but the empty storefronts standout.
Outdoor recreational activities abound. The Snake River and the reservoir offer many opportunities for boating and fishing. The Willow Bay Marina complex offers camping, boat launch facilities and a cafe. Bird watchers find the area to be a prime site for the year-round observing of a variety of birds, particularly during the spring migration. However, the tourism industry is underdeveloped and under-marketed, and American Falls is missing out on those dollars.
The American Falls School District consists of two elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school complex built in 2002. The high school features a state-of-the-art auditorium which is used throughout the year for a variety of musical and theatrical events. American Falls is home to Power County’s offices and courthouse, County EMS, Harms Memorial Hospital, Power County Nursing Home and the Public library.
The Horizons program was introduced to American Falls after a group of civic-minded residents made application to participate. This group was attracted to Horizons because they were looking for ways to change the dynamic in their city from one of staying away and complaining to an attitude of involvement. With a population of 4,111 and a poverty rate of 17 percent, American Falls easily qualified for inclusion in the program, and the requirement that communities address the challenges of poverty and discover solutions as a group was especially attractive.
So, with the goal of finding innovative solutions to poverty, Horizons was launched in American Falls with the study circles. During this phase of the program, community members engaged in conversations and the development of action plans focused on poverty. More than 100 citizens took part, including students of all ages, service organizations, local sororities, religious organizations and individuals assigned to Drug Court. The work of the study circles wrapped up with an “Action Forum,” where participants generated ideas to tackle needs tied to poverty that are currently unaddressed in the community. Those ideas included the creation of community education programs, the development of strategies to ensure better access to aid programs like CASA and the food bank, and the development of a youth council.
Twenty-five community members took part in the LeadershipPlenty® training, where the group worked to build leadership through the development and improvement of leadership skills, such as effective communication, conflict management and partnership building. These skills were then put into use as participants have worked together as community leaders to reduce poverty. In addition, the LeadershipPlenty® program was offered in Spanish, which was well-attended and well-received by the Hispanic community.
The third stage – community visioning and planning – was also a great success. American Falls really embraced the objective of community visioning and used the rally to focus on leadership growth, poverty reduction and getting community factions to pull together to accomplish common goals. The rally was heavily advertised and all promotional information was distributed in Spanish and English. In addition to distributing bilingual flyers describing the Visioning Rally throughout the community, the steering committee also made personal invitations to area churches and service organizations, with an emphasis on reaching out to the Hispanic community. Also, reminders were sent home with every student in the district.
The Visioning Rally was held on May 15th at the Intermediate School Gym. The day began with a special meeting between rally facilitator, David Buerle, and the 7th graders. They had a great discussion about community, and David was able to get some excellent feedback on their view of American Falls. The 7th graders had wonderful insight and ideas. They voiced their concerns about a lack of activities for the youth and about the high teen pregnancy rate. They were very optimistic about American Falls overall. An assembly was also held at American Falls High School. The students there were equally engaged in the discussion. David gave another inspiring talk about community and about how important it is to get the opinions and help of the youth as we craft the future of American Falls.
The Visioning Rally that night was a success. The steering committee was very pleased with the turnout and the willingness of everyone to bring positive change to our community. Three action teams were formed at the end of the night. The initial focus of these groups was: 1) Expand American Falls Days to make it a more diverse celebration; 2) Develop a cultural training program; and 3) Downtown revitalization. Following the initial formation of these teams, planning meetings were held. As a result of these sessions, the focus and make-up of the Action Teams were altered to fit more closely with the goals of the community and to concentrate more clearly on poverty reduction work. First, the “Cultural Awareness” group formed to make the annual American Falls Days celebration a more diverse event has revised its focus to create a community education program. This group also incorporated the team originally created to develop a cultural training program. These changes immediately prompted additional interest in the group, as a lack of education beyond high school is a common problem in American Falls, which certainly contributes to the high poverty rate. The Community Education team will focus on efforts to encourage and help current students pursue education beyond high school. However, in addition to that message, this team will also work to promote education and offer educational opportunities to adults who never finished their degree and even for employees already in the workforce who need to go back to school to gain the skills they need to enhance their earning power. The focus of the Education Team on promoting increased education of all types, including bachelor’s degrees, apprenticeships, associate degrees, certificates and professional technical training, will all lead to better jobs, a better quality of life and less poverty. In line with this vision, the first project of the Community Education team will be to create a GED program in the community. Idaho State University previously taught this course but is no longer providing this service. The Community Education team will re-build the GED program to ensure the community, especially youth and low-income individuals, are not denied the chance to further their education. In the near term, this team also plans to develop a distance learning center in order to facilitate an opportunity for the citizens of American Falls to achieve higher levels of education in a convenient and cost-effective manner. This will assist low income individuals qualify for better employment and/or improve their ability to advance in their careers. In addition, an educational workshop to teach job-hunting skills (i.e., resume writing, interviewing, where to look for a job, networking, etc.) and specifically aimed at low-income, unemployed, underemployed and the Hispanic community, will be conducted in February or March. The overreaching goal of the Community Education Team is to inspire and educate people to help them escape generational and/or situational poverty.
Secondly, as a result of the planning meetings following the Visioning Rally, it was determined that the formation of a Youth Council would really benefit the community and meet with their poverty reduction goals. The participants in the Horizons program have come to recognize throughout the process that their community will be better off if it is more united. Joining young people together with established leaders will create change. The development of a Youth Council is also an investment in basic community resources. American Falls has a real need for more people who can be community leaders. Good leaders are as important as good roads and good skills. In addition, focusing on youth will build assets. The creation of a Youth Council will also ensure the community holds onto these new assets. The building up of leadership skills in the youth will be passed on from one council to another.
This team has taken the initial steps of securing the adult supervisors and selecting the members of the council. The goal of the Youth Council is to educate young people about the process of government, including providing a chance to actually participate on the City Council. The Youth Council will also provide the students with an opportunity to develop communication, team-building, project management and leadership skills. This will lead to greater confidence as they step into adult leadership roles. Creating a Youth Council will also bring people together, helping American Falls better address the hard issues they face. The Youth Council is also working to address the concerns identified during the Visioning Rally, especially a lack of participatory approach to decision making and a high teen pregnancy rate. The Youth Council also wants to find solutions to other issues such as a lack of activities for youth and the desire or tendency of young people to want to leave American Falls upon graduation.
Lastly, the Downtown Revitalization group has identified a main focus of helping people meet their urgent needs. Although this team formed around the idea of improving the downtown area, their focus has evolved to work at identifying projects to ensure that no one goes hungry and that people have adequate shelter and basic services.
For their first project, the Downtown team partnered with SEICCA and local churches to create holiday baskets, which included necessities, such as canned food, medicines, clothing, blankets, and even a turkey. This project was concrete and easily-achievable, with quick, measurable results. The baskets were distributed to 180 families.
Other short-term projects have also been identified. The next undertaking is to create a Neighborhood Watch in conjunction with local law enforcement. The Downtown Revitalization Team has recognized that American Falls has a poverty of safety and an issue with vandalism. The formation of a neighborhood watch system will help to combat these problems, as well as working to unite residents. The Downtown Revitalization Team also wants to put programs in place to guarantee services are provided, as well as ensuring the community is aware of those services. As a first step toward this goal, the team is in the process of creating a list of services and useful information to be distributed to residents. This pamphlet, printed in both English and Spanish, will be sent out with water bills and will be available at City Hall and the public library. In addition, new residents will be given a “welcome bag” created by the Downtown Revitalization Team, which will include this list of services along with gift certificates and coupons from local businesses. The Downtown Revitalization Team will also partner with existing service organizations and local churches to identify needs and help these groups in their current work against poverty. This team also plans to work with Partners for Prosperity.
Finally, in addition to the above-mentioned work, the Downtown Revitalization Team will focus on making improvements to the downtown area in order to create more and better jobs. The team will work on finding uses for abandoned buildings, with a focus on further developing the tourism industry in American Falls. For example, the creation of a center devoted to the world-class bird watching opportunities in American Falls will bring dollars to the community, as well as utilizing an empty space. Revitalizing the downtown area will also hopefully bring more people to that part of town, boosting sales for the existing businesses and resulting in increased employment opportunities. As is evidenced by their ambitious and aggressive plans, the Downtown Revitalization Team is the largest action team and is especially enthusiastic and organized.