UI Horizons Regional Training
Building Social Capital: Connecting
Newcomers and Locals to Strengthen
Communities--Lynette Flage

For further information or to RSVP
for an event please contact:

    
     Meri Joswiak
     Horizons Program Assistant
     merijoz@uidaho.edu
     208-885-8949
 

Building Social Capital: Connecting
Newcomers and Locals to Strengthen
Community
    Lynette Flage, Community Leadership
    Development Specialist, North Dakota State
    University Extension
   
    January 15, 2008   9am-3pm
    Grangeville, ID--Super 8 Meeting Room

    January 16, 2008   9am-3pm
    Plummer, ID--Tribal Wellness Center


                “Compared with the citizens of most other countries, Americans have always lived a nomadic
existence. Nearly one in five of us move each year, and
having done so, are likely to pick up and move again. More than two in five of us expect to move in the next five years. As a result, compared with other peoples, Americans have become accustomed to pitching camp quickly and making friends easily.”

“Nevertheless, for people as for plants, frequent repotting disrupts roots systems. It takes time for a mobile individual to put down new roots. As a result, residential stability is strongly associated with civic engagement. Recent arrivals in any community are less likely to vote, less likely to have supportive networks of friends and neighbors and less likely to belong to civic organizations.” 
                                        Robert Putnam – Bowling Alone

 How does a community assist those that have recently moved in to become engaged, feel at home and connected to this new place?  A community with ample social capital will be able to do just that as they make newcomers feel connected and welcome. The central foundation of social capital is that the connections among people add value to a society.  It refers to the collective value of social networks of “who people know” and it describes what can arise from these networks when they do things for each other.  The basic premise is that the interaction enables people to build communities, to commit themselves to each other and to knit the social fabric.

Please join the University of Idaho Extension Service Horizons program o for information and activities around this thing called “social capital.”  This program will help you:

• Understand the definition of social capital and what it might look like in your  community
• Recognize the benefits of social capital
• Determine what can be done in your community to increase social capital

Trainer Lynette Flage serves as a Community Leadership Development Specialist for the North Dakota State University Extension Service.  She is the project director of the Horizons program in North Dakota, which currently involves 21communities in North Dakota.  Lynette lives and works in Cavalier, North Dakota and has been working with the Horizons program since 2002.   Prior to serving in this role, she worked as a Technology Specialist for the North Dakota State University Extension Service and worked with rural communities to develop their electronic commerce.  Lynette has her Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota, her Master’s degree from North Dakota State University and is currently working on her doctorate at North Dakota State University.  Her areas of research interest include social capital and women in leadership.  Besides work, Lynette is very active in her community, volunteering for church, school and community events.  She enjoys hiking, reading and watching her children in their many school activities.  She and her husband Lon have lived in Cavalier, North Dakota for 13 years along with their three sons, Jordan (21), Alex (16), and Isaac (9).