Forum Activity for @angie-k

I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have lived in the county we still call home for our entire lives other than being away at college, but this was still home. We couldn't wait to get back.  I lived in the corner of the county bordering two other counties until I was 17 and my parents sold the family homestead. The total population of the county is 48,000.  Eight years ago we moved from one side of the county to the other and now live in a small golf community just out side of the largest town in the county, pop. 9,000.  I didn't think I would like living with houses this close, but there are only 85 homes here and we are a close neighborhood that really takes care of one another.  I recently took over coordinating the Cobblestone Directory so I could get to know my neighbors even better.  It has been fun.  

Noble County, IN is 41% manufacturing in its employment followed by education, retail and 4th being agriculture (there goes THAT myth that we all live down on the farm!)  The manufacturing here is heavily automotive so we took a pretty big hit with COVID, but we are back to the pre-covid significant issue of WAY more jobs than workers to fill them.  Unfortunately, we have had people flat out tell us they are "taking the summer off" because they can "get a job anywhere whenever they want."  The problem with that is that we have already lost two major employers and another line from a third.   They are going where they can get workers which means the people who WERE working just lost jobs in which they had gained seniority.  They have jobs but are starting at the bottom of the totem pole again.  It's rough to watch.  

Housing ... lack of it ... is a big issue here.  It's worse now than before COVID.  Many landlords here are small business sort of landlords and the moratoriums completely took them out.  Several sold the homes and walked away.  Don't get me started on the horrible trickle down impact of moratoriums.  Our people are in serious debt from riding that for so long and we're now working with them to try to get them out of that trench.

I'm attaching a Mission Insite report that's fairly accurate except I don't fully agree with the diversity status.  We have a pretty significant population from Mexico (our home town is 52% or higher out of 4600 or so people) and there is a significant population from Yemin here in Kendallville.  We have a lot of Amish folks, as well.  Other than that, it's pretty accurate, but I just ran it and haven't taken a deep dive yet.

Now I'm off to start a staycation in which we will explore our county and surrounding area on foot, on bikes and in our Jeep!

Noble County Full Insite July 2021.pdf - 536KB

Are you referring to the "In Search of 'Good' Rural Data?"

Aspen Institute has several reports.  Very interesting site.  I spent some time surfing around.  Now I have even MORE reading to do.

This reminds me of our daughter and her husband who both grew up in the rural community and thought the city life would be MUCH better.  They couldn't wait to get out of here.  They lived in a suburb of Indianapolis. Then they lived in a suburb of Columbus, OH.  Then a suburb of Denver, CO.  Back to Indiana to a city center near Indianapolis again.  Now they are back in the rural community and can't figure out why they ever left.  They don't regret their adventures, but they never found home to be so much a home as the rural community where you can see the stars and hear the crickets at night.

The Transformation Principle is what Common Grace Ministries is all about.  Giving people "free" "stuff" will never make a dent in poverty because it doesn't change a thing.  It might alleviate hunger for the moment, but it doesn't change the hunger of tomorrow.  Mother Teresa's quote is marvelous!  Who can we BE to others so that they can discover all that God intends for them to be?

This is amazing!!  Love it.  Thank you, Derek!

I LOVE this and will be taking it to our meeting this afternoon!  

Angie

Hi Everyone.

I have been actively involved in our county COAD for seven years.  That stands for Community Organizations Active in Disaster and we work with our local Emergency Management Agency (EMA).  We are linked to our state INVOAD (Indiana Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to NVOAD (National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) which is linked to Homeland Security.  This is a structure already in place that is well organized and very much utilizes ABCD in our community.  Not all counties have a COAD, but working with your local EMA to start one is a great way to work in the ABCD model and not reinvent a wheel that is already rolling.  There are resources to help you do that.  

We just had a 4-county hazmat exercise that was a "dress rehearsal" of sorts for what we would all be doing in the event of an actual emergency.  This allowed us to work out bugs and roll out a new plan a few of us developed to fill the gap between the time a disaster happened and the time the Red Cross and other First Responders could get there.  Most don't realize that gap can be as long as 2 hours or more.  Our EMA director calls that YOYO time...You're On Your Own!  In the 4 counties in the exercise, we were the only county that has a COAD and it made a HUGE difference.  Out local head line front page above the fold was "Noble County COAD Shines at Disaster Training."  

If you want more information, I am happy to direct you.  This is truly the community taking care of one another and being prepared to act instead of REact.