2022 Rural Fellows—Valentine

Grace Mabiala-Maye, Carine Mushimiyimana Author

08/08/2022 Added

30 Plays

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Student and Community Fellows talk about the community development projects they worked on in Valentine, Nebraska during Summer 2022.

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[00:00:00.066](upbeat music)
[00:00:01.971]Welcome to Valentine.
[00:00:04.020]Valentine is one of the most beautiful cities
[00:00:06.420]in the Cherry County.
[00:00:07.680]It's small, but has a lot to offer.
[00:00:09.720]It was founded in 1884,
[00:00:12.060]named after Congressman called Edward K. Valentine,
[00:00:15.660]and it's so peaceful and filled with friendly people.
[00:00:18.690]Honestly, Valentine's culture is so lovely and interesting.
[00:00:22.230]Where ever you go,
[00:00:23.220]you get to see more culture things
[00:00:24.930]that makes you more familiar with the place.
[00:00:27.600]You also get to connect
[00:00:29.400]and also enjoy some more outdoor activities
[00:00:32.302]that eases your adaptability to the place.
[00:00:35.820]It is in that culture context that we lived
[00:00:38.370]and worked here for 10-
[00:00:39.507]The community of Valentine is always so excited
[00:00:42.750]and impressed to have fellows visit Valentine.
[00:00:46.020]They always bring such energy
[00:00:48.390]and vitality and ideas to our community.
[00:00:50.790]Grace and Carine's work in Valentine this summer
[00:00:53.040]has helped with two very strategic projects.
[00:00:55.800]The first is our trail and recreation master plan.
[00:00:59.988]Carine's work helping organize that,
[00:01:02.730]which is very early on in the process.
[00:01:04.020]This summer I had a great opportunity
[00:01:05.850]to work with the Valentine Economic Development Board,
[00:01:08.705]where I was concentrating on the official trails and parks.
[00:01:11.702]During my time here I spent most of the time
[00:01:13.560]exploring and doing more research
[00:01:15.270]about the town to figure out what could be implemented
[00:01:19.560]to make the official trails and parks better.
[00:01:21.900]So, I did more research, conducted a survey,
[00:01:24.810]and also contacted people to know what they think
[00:01:28.204]could be implemented on the
[00:01:29.889]official trails and parks to make them better.
[00:01:31.497]The parks and trails programs that Carine has
[00:01:34.080]been working on,
[00:01:34.913]we're working with the National Park Service
[00:01:37.560]and we're trying to develop an overall trail plan.
[00:01:40.320]We have a, a good start to that, um, but we've got a lot
[00:01:43.950]of work to do.
[00:01:44.783]And so with Carine putting in the work
[00:01:46.560]on that, we'll have a lot of the footwork done.
[00:01:48.180]In the near future,
[00:01:49.053]more people will be happy to enjoy the trail
[00:01:51.600]while they're educating themselves more
[00:01:53.520]about Valentine's history and also get to relax
[00:01:56.960]on the beautiful beaches that will be put there.
[00:02:00.420]Graces work with early childhood
[00:02:03.300]and childcare has been very timely.
[00:02:06.030]The summer has almost reached crisis level
[00:02:09.450]of childcare needs.
[00:02:11.340]And as a result, we've been able to move much more quickly.
[00:02:14.580]Her work helping build a business plan
[00:02:17.700]for a profit or community owned childcare center will
[00:02:21.196]will likely see immediate impact as we continue
[00:02:25.410]that conversation and look for a solution soon.
[00:02:28.980]During this 10 weeks here in Valentine
[00:02:31.920]I had the brief opportunity to work on childcare access
[00:02:36.000]which is one of the main issues here in Valentine.
[00:02:39.403]Daycare is a big issue for workforce, of course
[00:02:42.335]getting people to come to Valentine,
[00:02:44.760]they need daycare for their kids.
[00:02:46.170]And so we want to provide a good quality daycare experience.
[00:02:48.553]And one of the challenges that we ran into prior
[00:02:51.390]to Grace coming was we didn't, we didn't have the ability
[00:02:56.190]from a team member time perspective to devote to this.
[00:03:01.410]And, and that's what Grace did and, and the rural fellowship
[00:03:03.780]program did for this organization, for our community
[00:03:06.510]was devote time to researching and investigating.
[00:03:10.380]What does it mean?
[00:03:11.310]What are our daycare challenges within the community?
[00:03:15.090]And, and do we indeed need the childcare
[00:03:18.240]that we think that we do?
[00:03:19.073][Grace] I worked closely with the CEO of the hospital,
[00:03:23.647]we go and we draft together a 25 question into a survey.
[00:03:28.326]The survey was a way for us to
[00:03:31.560]have all the available and recent data
[00:03:34.620]about the childcare issue.
[00:03:36.323]After collecting the result from this survey,
[00:03:39.390]we were able to do a business plan.
[00:03:41.820]Grace has come up with a nice business plan
[00:03:43.650]that we can expand in different chunks to make it as big
[00:03:46.320]as we want, or keep it as small as we want.
[00:03:48.210]So that business plan,
[00:03:49.380]explain what we will do as a childcare.
[00:03:51.897]If we're hoping to include the staffing that we'll need,
[00:03:56.220]the activity hours included.
[00:03:59.010]Also, the budget. How much do we need to open that daycare?
[00:04:04.140]So after that step of the business model, we worked together
[00:04:08.224]as a collective impact to find a way to collaborate
[00:04:11.974]and to have funding to open the daycare.
[00:04:15.510]This is something that we had to tackle
[00:04:17.460]as an organization and having the rural fellow program here
[00:04:21.390]and Grace and all the work that she did has just
[00:04:24.060]been a tremendous asset for our organization.
[00:04:28.034]So, one of the benefits
[00:04:29.970]to doing what we have done is it relates
[00:04:32.400]into the provider and,
[00:04:34.017]and team member retention and recruitment.
[00:04:37.456]Healthcare is a very challenging field
[00:04:39.600]and getting enough folks to come into rural Nebraska
[00:04:42.990]to share their clinical expertise is very challenging.
[00:04:47.340]So having an, an, a daycare that we can help support
[00:04:52.680]and provide options for their kids
[00:04:55.920]so they can come to work has been the main focus.
[00:04:58.080]So, we very much appreciate what's happened.
[00:05:00.240]And looking forward to see where this goes in the future.
[00:05:03.744]I'm proud of myself, because I was able to develop
[00:05:05.358]the solution of something great.
[00:05:10.156]Something really important for the community of Valentine.
[00:05:13.462]So I hope next year, if I come back,
[00:05:16.080]to see the daycare and have a selfie,
[00:05:19.445]just next to that daycare.
[00:05:20.700]That's quality of life.
[00:05:21.600]When people are looking to move to a community
[00:05:23.910]they always want to see what kind of schools, what kind
[00:05:26.400]of hospital you have, what kind of other amenities you have.
[00:05:29.760]And if you have a, a trail system and good daycare
[00:05:32.880]then that goes a long way to speak for your community.
[00:05:35.550]So those issues we've been working on for a while
[00:05:38.160]and I think we've taken a good step forward this summer
[00:05:40.830]with the rural fellows here to, to help us out with that.
[00:05:43.080]The town was so nice, peaceful,
[00:05:46.110]and we had also enjoyed outdoor activities
[00:05:49.170]which was a great thing for us.
[00:05:50.670]Indeed, these outdoor activities were so amazing.
[00:05:53.144]We went to the lake with Mike's family and truly this was
[00:05:57.180]a great experience that we'll never forget.
[00:05:59.820]We had a lot of fun and enjoyed that time being there.
[00:06:02.970]Also, had an opportunity to go
[00:06:04.470]to the Valentine city park,
[00:06:06.059]a beautiful place that most of the people like.
[00:06:09.180]We had to go to the
[00:06:10.740]to the Smith Falls State Park, a beautiful place
[00:06:14.040]with a beautiful waterfall that attracts many tourists.
[00:06:18.180]Truly, we now consider ourselves blessed
[00:06:21.030]and lucky to have been part of this community.
[00:06:24.060]Indeed, this is a great place to be
[00:06:26.633]Also, got some more opportunity to volunteer
[00:06:29.460]to some places where we had to interact
[00:06:32.220]with people and also learned more resilience
[00:06:34.620]and work skills that will last for a lifetime.
[00:06:37.316]And before leaving
[00:06:39.013]I just want to tell the community of Valentine
[00:06:41.760]because they accept me with my different background.
[00:06:45.150]And I was able, also, to learn from the community.
[00:06:49.030]It was a really inclusive experience.
[00:06:51.930]The only two words that I can say is thank you.
[00:06:54.117]The rural fellowship program, granting us
[00:06:56.490]this opportunity to grow and experience.
[00:06:58.308]Also, thank you Valentine for sweetening my experience
[00:07:03.240]Indeed this is a small town filled with amazing people.
[00:07:06.450]The heart city. Thank you.
[00:07:07.783]We consider them our family.
[00:07:10.770]I hope they consider us their family.
[00:07:13.440]They do wonderful work while they're here.
[00:07:15.300]And again, we just, their work is, is unbelievably great.
[00:07:19.980]I know they worked on trails.
[00:07:21.300]They worked on childcare, which has been a problem
[00:07:24.300]in Valentine for at least the 20 years that I've been here.
[00:07:27.581]We are super excited that they spent their time with us.
[00:07:31.320]We had a great time getting to know them
[00:07:33.270]and we hope they return soon.
[00:07:35.631]Thank you Valentine! Hope to see you soon.
[00:07:39.184](electric guitar playing)

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2022 Rural Fellows—Valentine

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