Horizons Community Blog (Colville, WA)

Registeration Form is located under the Community Event tap under the Upper Columbia Volunteer Center section.


The NEW Alliance Counseling Services AmeriCorps Program is partnering with Community Colleges of Spokane, Colville HORIZONS and Washington State University to sponsor the first Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program in Northeastern Washington. The course will be held at Institute for Extended Learning, Colville Center on May 26 and 27, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 4p.m both days. Registration fee will be $20.00 for both days and lunch will be provided.
The MHFA program will train police officers, emergency responders, primary care professionals, education personnel, clergy and members of the public to improve mental health literacy -- helping them identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness.
"We are thrilled to bring Mental Health First Aid to our community," said Ann Van Dielen, AMERICORPS member. "This important educational effort really helps people understand the shroud of fear and misjudgment facing individuals and families who experience mental illnesses and addiction. We hope this program will help reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and move more and more people toward recovery."
Mental Health First Aid is a 12-hour training certification course which teaches participants a five-step action plan to assess a situation, select and implement interventions and secure appropriate care for the individual. The certification program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact and offers overviews of common treatments. Research has shown that the MFA program is effective in improving trainees' knowledge of mental disorders, reducing stigma and increasing the amount of help provided to others.
Mental Health First Aid comes under the auspices of the ORYGEN Research Centre at the University of Melbourne in Australia under the direction of MHFA founders Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm. To date, it has been implemented in six other countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, Scotland, England, Canada, Finland and Singapore.
The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare brought MHFA to the United States in 2008. In its pilot year, the program was introduced in nearly 20 states and more than 40 communities nationwide
The program has been made available to the residents of the area through grants from the Washington State Mental Health Transformation Project, Eastern State Hospital, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and Washington State University. The course will be taught by John Murphy, a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor. John is a Patient Advocate at Eastern State Hospital, a trainer for Wellness Recovery Action Plan and Recovery and Resiliency program. He is on the state board for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and has been advocating for mental health for more the 20 years.
“MHFA offers those who take the program a way of approaching someone in crisis and asking how they're doing and offering resources that could help them,” John said. Safety is another aspect of mental health first aid where trainers teach people whether they can approach someone, or should call law enforcement.
Many times, people want to respond but don't know how. Participants will learn about signs and symptoms of mental illness and about effective treatments in an effort to help reduce stigma.
For more information and registration form go to http://www.colvillewa.org/. Contact Ann Van Dielen at 509-389-1950 or email at info@colvillewa.org.

“Your Big Idea” Kickoff Set for May 5 The Kick-off Conference for the 4th Annual “Your Big Idea” Contest will take place May 5th 2011 at the Institute for Extended Learning, 985 S. Elm St., Colville, from 4 pm to 6 pm. The event will include an overview of how the WSU Innovation Assessment Center will assist scholarship winners, and presentations on Intellectual Property and local micro-enterprise development. The scholarship cost per entry to the WSU IAC is $795.00 per idea. Most small business counselors estimate that the IAC does thousands of dollars worth of work to help prepare an inventor’s idea for its best chances in the market. Up to three scholarships could be awarded this year. Colville Horizons will fund one for a Colville resident and Valley Horizons for a Valley resident. A third will be available for a winner outside of the Colville and Valley areas. Entrepreneurs and inventors benefit from the WSU IAC report on winning product ideas which includes in depth market analysis, a feasibility analysis and a patent search to determine competition. One past contest winner already has taken his product into local production and has made some sales. Another winner, as well, is very close to getting his product into production. The Colville Horizons goal is to help local entrepreneurs start production of local products and possibly create local jobs.

• Fall, December 31, 2010
• Winter, February 28, 2011
• Spring, April 30, 2011
• Summer, July 30, 2011

Why: To help Horizons spread the message of working together toward prosperity through its colorful community calendar…and show the community your photographic ability!

How:

• Each contestant may submit up to twelve landscape digital photographs for the year ending July 30, 2011 by e-mailing them as JPEG files to susan.poe@gmail.com. You may enter the contest quarterly, keeping in mind that our goal is to highlight a community area or event per month.
• In the body of your e-mail please list your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, age (optional), and a sentence explaining how the photo relates to the theme.
• Some photos of persons may require a model release. For information about model release forms, contact Sue Poe at (509) 685-6649.
• Questions? Contact Valerie Lamont, valerielamont@gmail.com.

By Theresa Elders

Colville Horizons seeks a dozen great photos to feature on next year's Colville Community Calendar, which will be published in October, 2011. The prize? Your photo featured on one of the full-color calendar pages! Horizons goal is to highlight a community area or event each month, seasonal photos that reflect the spirit and heart of our community.

Rules are simple! Any Stevens County resident can submit up to twelve landscape digital photos for the year ending July 30, 2011 by mailing them as JPEG files to susan.poe@gmail.com. Autumn photos should be sent by December 15, 2010, Winter by February 28, 2011, Spring by April 30, 2011 and Summer by July 30, 2011. In the body of your e-mail please include your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, age (optional), and a sentence explaining how the photo relates to the Colville theme.

Any shutterbugs with great photos from the recent fair, Halloween or Thanksgiving activities, send them in right away. Questions? Contact Valerie Lamont, valerielamont@gmail.com.

The calendar is a fundraising project for Colville Horizons.

By Terri Elders

Approximately forty people gathered at the Institute for Extended Learning on Saturday, October 3 to share and learn about new strategies for starting up and marketing a local business. The event, sponsored by the Colville Horizons, drew interested participants from surrounding communities as well as Colville.

Jeni Forman, marketing director from Hearth and Home kicked off the morning’s presentations by encouraging entrepreneurs to watch for new opportunities to expand their distribution. She emphasized the four “P”s of marketing: product, place, promotion and price.

James Steen, who recently opened Maverick’s, a Colville restaurant, discussed the benefits of dry runs and of training employees thoroughly. “Never underestimate the power of word of mouth in small towns,” he advised.

IEL instructor Rick Hansen reminded business owners to consider their customers. “Most business people have expertise in their products but sometimes forget about the customer. What does the customer want? What is the business really selling? It’s not just the product, but the benefits that having that product will bring.”

Tri-County Economic Development District director Leslie Jones discussed the free business training that will be offered at the facility’s new location in South Town Plaza. The new business incubator program, North East Washington Business Development Services, will launch a series of five classes on consecutive Saturdays, beginning October 23, from 9 to 12. The first session, conducted by Scott Douglas, SCORE representative, will be free.

Debra Kollock, Stevens County WSU Extension director, outlined the history of that program, and its outreach and engagement in Stevens County since l936.

Elliott Edwards, co-owner of Hachisoft, opened his address by providing definitions commonly associated with technology buffs: geek, gork and dweeb. He emphasized that entrepreneurs need to be obsessive, “just like geeks.” He described how technology is changing the way the world views marketing, including how social marketing systems such as Twitter can track customers and customer satisfaction.

Vicky Broden briefly introduced the basic ideas behind Blue Ocean strategies in creating a niche for businesses. Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy book that illustrates the high growth and profits an organization can generate by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", rather than by competing head-to-head with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry

The last presenter, Jody Collins, who is attending Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Academy in Portland, OR, demonstrated pie crust making techniques and served participants slices of several varieties of quiche.

“We want to thank everybody who attended this event. We found the comments and evaluations useful for planning future events,” said Sue Poe, current Colville Horizons chairperson. “Further, we are most appreciative for the continuing partnerships we have with WSU Extension and the IEL. We especially thank Pastor Kays of the Church of the Nazarene for allowing Jody Collins to prepare his pies in the church kitchen.”

According to Poe, the PowerPoint presentations soon will be posted on the Horizons website, http://www.colvillewa.org/ .