The Northcentral Montana Community Venture Coalition submits plan to reduce poverty to regional group

The Northcentral Montana Community Venture Coalition cleared another hurdle Friday as it sent a rough draft of its poverty reduction plan to the Northwest Area Foundation.

By BETH BRITTON
Tribune Business Editor

The 10-year plan asks for $13 million to help implement poverty-reduction strategies in northcentral Montana.

The area includes Glacier, Toole, Liberty, Hill, Pondera, Cascade, Judith Basin, Chouteau, Blaine and Phillips counties and the Blackfeet, Rocky Boy’s and Fort Belknap reservations.

Coalition co-chair Peggy Beltrone, a Cascade County commissioner, said Montana is one of four finalists the foundation chose in 2001 — through its Community Ventures program — to design and submit a poverty-reduction plan.

The foundation ultimately will choose one or two of those finalists to receive the 10-year, multimillion-dollar funding.

The Northwest Area Foundation is a private, philanthropic organization established by Louis W. Hill in 1934. Its mission is to help reduce poverty in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

In early 2002, the foundation gave the coalition a $600,000 grant that was used to design the 10-year plan.

Next month, coalition representatives will travel to the foundation’s headquarters in Minnesota to present the plan, Beltrone said. The plan includes strategic directions in the areas of community, health, economy, education, housing, transportation and children, youth and families.

Just as important, perhaps, is the dialogue the planning process encouraged.

Hundreds of community residents throughout the area participated in planning meetings, Beltrone said.

"We have created a space for dialogue that didn’t exist before," she said. "I’ve never seen this cohesion from northcentral Montana, and there’s been a separation between communities and the reservations that we’ve bridged."

A final plan will be submitted in September, and the foundation is expected to make its decision in December, Beltrone said.

For information, visit http://www.montanacv.org, e-mail [email protected] or call 452-1716.

Peggy Beltrone can be reached at 454-6814, and co-chairman George Heavy Runner can be reached at (406) 338-7181.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20030701/localnews/572982.html