Idaho State Update
by IASFAA President Cheryl Anderson,
Idaho State University
www.isu.edu/departments/finaid/stdiasf.htm

The last week in June, I was privileged to attend the annual Association of Idaho Cities convention in Coeur d'Alene. The entire conference was focused on creating healthy communities by recognizing basic human rights issues and the importance of our youth and helping to build them into assets. We were taught some of the tools to start addressing the issues. Sessions were held on how to have difficult conversations, recognition of escalating conflict situations and conflict resolution skills. The Carr Foundation has established a center for public policy at the Kennedy School for Government at Harvard University focusing on human rights. Greg Carr, the founder of the foundation, is a native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and is the former CEO of Prodigy software and former publisher of the Boston Review. Mr. Carr brought the executive director and some of the Carr Foundation staff to conduct the sessions. He recognizes the need for addressing human rights issues both in Idaho and throughout the world. The Executive Directors of the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors were in attendance because of the quality and importance of the program. It was most fitting for the location of the conference to be in Coeur d'Alene because of the undeserved publicity surrounding the area as a result of a small group of Aryan Nation extremists who live there and are getting much more national publicity than is warranted.

The Association of Idaho Cities is establishing a human rights task force with the purpose of developing an ongoing, sustainable program of education and specific community actions focused on valuing the basic rights of each individual. Mr. Carr and the Carr Foundation have committed to an on-going partnership with the Association of Idaho Cities to provide financial and teaching resources to put Idaho in the forefront of this effort.

I hope to provide more information on this subject in the months ahead since the WASFAA conference in 2002 is in Boise. I personally want each and every one of you to know that Idaho is not only facing its unfounded bad reputation, but is becoming the national model for other cities and states on the subject of human rights. This effort will be further promoted throughout the United States because Brent Coles, Mayor of Boise, is the national president of the U. S. Conference of Mayors during this coming year.