Coeur d’Alene Reservation, ID

Co-Chairs: Carla Marratt and Donna Spier
Number of people on this Action Team: 16

1. What is the need or issue your Action Team is tackling in your community?

Our team is focusing on a large portion of the vision statement which refers to communication and leadership. “Coeur d’Alene Reservation communities are close-knit communities with tribal and local governments working in strong partnerships. We have open community conversations and full participation from out citizens. We are renowned for our progressive, cohesive and collaborative communities and self-supportive rural life…”

To get to that point, we need to improve the lines of communication in many directions. Communication is sporadic at best between governments, between communities, and between citizens and governments causing a general disconnect between the various groups. The public receives information from many sources (daily Spokane and Coeur d’Alene papers, weekly St. Maries paper, monthly Tribal paper, television news, newsletters from various entities, flyers, and word of mouth) and there is no determination as to what is effective.

2. Who else or what existing projects are you partnering with?

It is important for our group to have broad representation in order to be successful so we have invited all of the key communicators across the Reservation to sit at the table. We intend to partner with other entities and teams depending upon the project at hand. )

The main barriers that we have identified at this point are a difference in values between entities and communities, the willingness and/or ability to participate, and limited trust. To overcome these barriers we will need to communicate clearly with those we are seeking to participate and we will need to show direct benefit for participants.

3. What goals does your Action Team have? (What do you want to accomplish in the next 2-3 years?)

Our basic goals are to open the lines of communications between governments and communities, to foster cooperative efforts between governments, to prepare people for leadership roles, and to encourage youth for leadership roles.

We have not determined exactly what projects we want to pursue in order to achieve these goals but have several ideas on the table for discussion and exploration. Ideas for improving government to government communications include informal means such as a meet and greet with leaders, and community coalition breakfast; and formal means such as an intergovernmental advisory group or council of governments. Ideas to improve communication with the public included utilizing the community blog, developing an on-line resource bank, and developing a directory of local services both on-line and hard copy. Ideas for fostering leadership included providing speakers at events to help educate current leaders and to offer Leadership Plenty periodically to build new leaders. We want to work on a project or projects of a cooperative nature to bring the communities and governments together. Our plan would be to start with something non-controversial and beneficial to everyone. One idea is to start a community policing effort to improve community safety and plant the seeds of cooperation.

4. What do you want your Action Team to accomplish by June 30, 2008?

By the end of June of next year (7 months) we intend to accomplish maintaining a team with broad representation; holding a successful informal gathering of leaders; investigating the structure of an intergovernmental advisory group and council of governments to determine feasibility; determining if a survey will be a useful tool; maintaining the blog with current community information and promoting its use; identifying and beginning a cooperative project that will bring the communities together.

5. What impact do you want your actions to have and how will you measure that impact?

The impact we desire is to see improvements in communications and cooperative efforts. This can be measured in part by seeing joint projects come to fruition and by having broad attendance at various meetings. We can also measure the impact of efforts to foster leadership by seeing new people in leadership training and in traditional leadership roles.

We are considering the feasibility of a survey instrument to use before and after in regards to people’s perception of communication, how they would like to receive information, and other related items.

6. How will these actions reduce community poverty and/or build community leadership?

We hope to have an impact on reducing poverty by building strong community leaders who make more efficient use of resources through cooperative efforts. We hope to build leadership by providing avenues to improve communications and foster cooperative efforts, and by providing educational opportunities for new and existing leaders.

7. What initial action steps have you taken?

We have held five meetings with a broad representation of the communities and entities to discuss the issues and prepare this work plan. We have begun to promote the blog as a tool for getting information to the public in a timely manner.