2007 Great Strides: Four Case Studies

Inspiring stories about communities recognized by the Northwest Area Foundation for making significant progress toward reducing poverty long term. Other communities can replicate or adapt these poverty-reduction strategies.

2007 award-winning communities, highlighted in this publication, include:

- City of Westhope, ND
- City of Independence, OR
- 4-H Club - Big Quil Enterprises (Brinnon/Quilcene, WA)
- White Earth Land Recovery Project and White Earth Investment Initiative (White Earth Reservation, MN)

Click Here for the pdf document of the 2007 Great Strides: Four Case Studies.

By clicking on the title of this post you can access the NWAF Solution Depot, which gives you access to how-to-guides, case studies, and more to address poverty reduction in your community.

Case Study: Brinnon & Quilcene, WA; Youthful Energy

These two adjoining rural communities hugging the Olympic Mountains used a combination of social assets and leadership to reverse plummeting wages. An economic downturn in the timber industry motivated Quilcene/Brinnon to build up its aquaculture industry, which has caused a boost in wages by 16 percent between 1995 and 2005 and provided job development programs for youth. Half of the youth live in reported poverty, yet they have become the catalysts for change in this community.

Click Here for the pdf document of this exciting youth entrepreneurship initiative.

By clicking on the title of this post you can go to the NWAF Solution Depot, where you can access how-to-guides, case studies, and more related to reducing poverty in your community.

Case Study: Dayton, WA; The Broken Window Theory

If a house's window is broken and left in disrepair, passers-by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. More broken windows result, a climate of destruction and despair builds and eventually pervades the neighborhood. That, in a nutshell, is the "broken windows" theory.

When Dayton, Washington saw elements of this condition in its community in the early 1980s, the townspeople, including the youth, decided things had gone far enough.

Click Here for the pdf document about how this community turned things around and decreased their poverty levels by 34% over a 10 year period.

If you click on the title of this post it will take you to the NWAF Solutions Depot, where you can access how-to-guides, case studies, and more related to successful initiatives to reduce poverty in your community.