Jason Arndt jarndt@wolfrivermedia.com
The Shawano County University of Wisconsin-Extension will hold a Connecting the Dots workshop May 5 at The Main Event in Cecil.
Connecting the Dots was spearheaded by Nancy Schultz, family living educator, and Jay Moynihan, community resource development coordinator.
“We really wanted to convey to the community about collaborative impact, and how to collaborate better with one another,” Schultz said. “We have a need right now, and that is with poverty and workforce development.”
The event will kick off at 7:30 a.m. and conclude at noon. It will address concerns related to poverty, quality of life and workforce development.
According to the United States Census, 11.5 percent of Shawano County, along with 13.1 percent of the city of Shawano, lives below poverty level.
The UW-Extension sent out invitations to more than 100 local agencies to participate in the event, including local officials, financial institutions, school districts, nonprofit organizations, medical professionals and law enforcement agencies.
Schultz hoped to have 100 individuals registered by this week’s deadline, but about 40 are joining in the collaborative effort.
“We were hoping to get 100 people, but we are still going to give it a shot,” Schultz said.
The program’s mission to learn what each agency is doing to address community concerns, develop cooperative efforts and share ideas of reducing costs through collaborative efforts.
“Right now, we are finding out what each business is doing to address concerns and actually go across the board and come together,” she said, indicating efficiency is key to improving the quality of life in Shawano County.
Following introductions, UW-Extension registered dietician and nutrition education specialist Amy Korth will explain the importance of collaboration for a community impact.
Lynn Hrabek of the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention will coordinate a community cafe aimed to encourage open thinking through small group discussions during her presentation.
A community cafe is a structured conversational process intended to facilitate open discussion and link ideas within a larger group. Participants move between a series of tables where they continue discussion in response to specific questions.
Schultz hopes the program will benefit residents in Shawano County, and looks forward to the event.
“Maybe we can work more efficiently on these problems that we have in our community … and help address those issues,” she said. “It should be a good event, there will be a lot of sharing, and hopefully we can learn a lot from this experience.”
Co-sponsoring the event is Thrivent Financial, UW-Extension and ThedaCare.