We Can Make A Difference - Really

Most of us take a moment on Jan. 1 to contemplate new directions and challenges.

This moment represents a tremendous opportunity for communities around the Inland Northwest.

Experts on community development and problem-solving say tapping the inventory of local resources and enlisting the work of local people are the best ways for communities to stay healthy.

And on Jan. 1, people are receptive to being tapped.

Interestingly, this theme of building local partnerships to solve community problems will be the focus of an all-day forum in Spokane on Jan. 19. On that day, nationally-recognized civic planner David Chrislip and Montana author and Missoula mayor Daniel Kemmis will lead discussions on how collaboration among diverse community groups can be used to address community problems.

The public is invited to this Leadership Spokane-sponsored forum, and ticket information is available at 459-4116.

This focus comes none too soon. Inland Northwest communities will be weeding through a garden full of challenges in 1996. Our basic economic foundations are changing fast as downsizing and consolidation rumble through health care, retailing and government. Spokane is coming off a record year for homicides. In Coeur d’Alene, public schools are struggling to maintain community support. Many small towns are facing a decline in local resources and a rise in crime and poverty.

As the late President Richard Nixon was fond of saying, the Chinese use two brush strokes to write the world “crisis.” One stroke stands for danger, the other for opportunity. Often, we are well aware of the crises around us, but less able to see the opportunities.

Yet the opportunities are there, even amid tough times as this newspaper learned in just the last few days. Again this year, The Spokesman-Review sought community assistance for three charities that were buying food vouchers and toys to families and children in need. A record 3,100 individuals and businesses donated a record $432,323 to the paper’s Christmas Fund.

This willingness to help astounded organizers of the fund who felt the season of giving might fall short.

It didn’t. People knew where the money was headed and they understood the need. They deserve our thanks.

Clarity of message and purpose have been essential elements of the Christmas Fund for 50 years and will be crucial to all community-based resource development efforts in 1996.

People want to know what a project is, where the money is going, and want to be able to measure the success.

If communities can draft clear messages and craft inclusive processes, community-based resource networks will be immensely successful in the new year.

Grandstanders and naysayers will pose a daunting challenge to community-based resource networks this year. Some people will try to define themselves by constantly drawing attention to personal agendas. Others will find comfort in saying no, no, no, again, and again, and again.

Community-based resource building requires a degree of trust. It requires joining hands and stepping forward together. If this simple act can be perfected, 1996 could be a year when communities around the Inland Northwest successfully tap the resources living right next door.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Chris Peck/For the editorial board