| Horizons
Community Training offered at Kooskia
The Kooskia Horizons Leadership Program and the Upper Clearwater Community Foundation will host a 2° Northwest (2DNW) Information and Asset Identification Meeting, February 28, 2008 at the Kooskia Community Building (City Hall) beginning at 7:00 PM. Following HandMade in America, a successful cultural tourism program of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, 2DWN will be designed according to the needs of north Idaho communities and local businesses that offer unique services, experiences, art, food or other products. In the HandMade in America model, tourism is a means to bring the marketplace to local businesses. Program objectives include helping local craftspeople, lodging providers, farmers, and other kinds of artisans develop and “sell” their services or products and communities recognize and develop their local assets for economic development and craft strategies to bring the market to the producer. In other states this model has proven to be effective in integrating community and economic development and improving the quality of life for rural residents. In north Idaho 2DNW trails and guidebooks will be created to link the region’s assets. In addition, a range of community and economic development services and types of marketing, organizational and business development assistance will be provided. This meeting will address the first phase of 2DNW’s three-pronged approach - Asset Identification: The first, most important and most labor intensive task is to develop an inventory of the region’s assets – those that are ready to be marketed, almost ready, or can be developed in the future. Existing sources are a great place to start, but engaging communities is the priority – putting then firmly in charge of identifying both the assets they would like to share with visitors and those they do not want to share. The intent of this meeting is to honor the wishes of local residents and generate ideas, passion and energy around unique community assets to be identified within this region - Kooskia, Kamiah, Stites, Grangeville, Cottonwood, Pierce, Weippe, Orofino, Craigmont, Winchester, Nez Perce and Elk City. You may be one or part of those assets. We need help finding you. Come to this meeting and tell us. For more information contact Debbie @ (208) 935-0764 or Leigh @ (208) 926-4439. Phase two will address community development and entrepreneurship and phase three, marketing. At the 2005 Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism, Becky Anderson, director of North Carolina’s HandMade in America described her organization’s novel approach to rural economic development – a strategy that helps communities identify, enhance and market their unique sites, heritage, culture and products, developing trails, guides and services for very rural communities. The idea appealed to many who strive to identify effective solutions to economic change in rural Idaho. In 2006, a group of Idaho agencies formed the Uniquely Idaho Steering Committee to support cultural tourism. Later that year, a small group of committed professionals in the Clearwater area of north central Idaho, an arts group in St, Maries, and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe developed proposals in response to the Idaho Commission on the Arts and Uniquely Idaho’s request for information about interest in cultural tourism. The Uniquely Idaho committee suggested the groups work together. An enthusiastic, region-wide response to the directive combined with interest from Washington communities and resources provided by University of Idaho Extension led to the creation of Two Degrees Northwest: Where Art Meets the Land. Please join us as we discover what is “Uniquely Idaho” during the 2o Northwest (2DNW) Information and Asset Identification Meeting, February 28, 2008 at the Kooskia Community Building (City Hall) beginning at 7:00 PM. Contact Debbie (208) 935-0764 or Leigh (208) 926-4439 for questions. |
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