NorthCentral Montana Region to compete for $13 million in anti-poverty funds from The Northwest Area Foundation

Roughly 15 percent of northcentral Montanans survive below the federal poverty threshold, $18,400 a year for a family of four.

By JARED MILLER The Great Falls Tribune

On area reservations, that figure is closer to 35 percent.

As a result, more than a third of the region’s youngest children live in grinding poverty.

Relief could be on the way, however, if a Minnesota-based philanthropic organization agrees to fund a $75 million regional poverty-reduction effort. The Northwest Area Foundation, http://www.nwaf.org/ established by heirs of Great Northern Railroad founder James J. Hill, will hold a Dec. 8 news conference in St. Paul to announce its decision.

Four poverty-stricken regions of the United States are competing for $13 million in seed money to build stronger economies in some of the county’s poorest areas. Coordinators say that’s enough to leverage $75 million through grants and fund-raising, officials said.

"Our region is the largest, poorest, most diverse of the regions," said Cascade County Commissioner Peggy Beltrone, who also serves as co-chairwoman of the Northcentral Montana Community Ventures Coalition, the group trying to secure funds in Montana. "We have undeniable needs, and I am confident that the foundation will recognize that."

The Northwest Area Foundation invested $600,000 to jumpstart each of the four regional plans. Other regions competing for the money are in Idaho, North Dakota and Iowa.

If the $13 million comes through for Montana, it will fund the Northcentral Montana Community Ventures Project, a 124-page plan based on two years of interviews with impoverished families, struggling business owners and others who have experienced life with too little money and services.

Written by a consultant in Washington State, the plan targets 11 Montana counties and three reservations. Its purpose is to strengthen business, families, health care, education, housing and transportation.

For example, it calls for $12 million to help homebuyers with down payments and closing costs, $4.2 million for micro business loans and $33 million for health care.

"It’s a plan that takes a real grassroots take on poverty — what the people are facing on the ground," Beltrone said.

Also, the plan aspires to "do no harm" to native and rural cultures as it helps struggling communities. Tribal members from the Blackfeet, Rocky Boy’s and Ft. Belknap reservations played a key role in the work, Beltrone said.

George Heavy Runner, Blackfeet Tribal Planning officer, is co-chairman of the Montana project. On the Blackfeet Reservation, Heavy Runner said, poverty has fractured value systems and crippled the tribe’s ability to help itself for decades. The tribe has long waged its own fight against low pay and high unemployment, he said, but with limited success.

The Northcentral Montana Community Ventures Project will enable communities like his to help themselves, Heavy Runner said. And without many of the strings attached to government grants.

"This really allows the people in those communities to be the leaders," he added.

Single mom Sheila Alefteras of Havre, for example, has been involved as a member of the coalition steering committee for nearly two years.

The mother of and eight-year-old boy and a college student at Montana State University-Northern, Alefteras, 33, said she has lived her entire adult life in poverty. She made $3,000 last year and attended college on federal student loans.

, Alefteras said, is a way out for her and others living in poverty.

"I want to be able to say I was a part of that," she said.

In Pondera County, poverty is less abject and less likely to span generations than on Montana reservations, but it certainly exists, said Elaina Zempel, economic developer for the Pondera Coalition for Progress, the economic development arm of the Conrad-area Chamber of Commerce. Zempel is also a member of the coalition steering committee.

Before she became involved with the project, Zempel said she was mostly unaware of poverty in Pondera County, where she grew up, and where 23 percent of children younger than 5 years old live below the poverty line.

"We didn’t even realize we were poor until somebody told us we were," Zempel said. Families and neighbors often help each other with meals and money, which reduces visible poverty.

"There’s still poverty pockets here in this area, and I think we’re seeing more and more of them," Zempel added.

The project has made Montana leaders more aware, and it has them talking about a solution, which Zempel said is encouraging.

If the Montana project is selected for funding, the Northwest Area Foundation will work closely with state leaders to implement a plan.

"With the money comes plenty of help," Beltrone said.

It’s not clear yet where the organization would be headquartered, or precisely how it would function, Beltrone said.

What is clear is the high hopes so many have for the project.

"We just want things to get better here," Heavy Runner said.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20031130/localnews/737390.html