Building and Nurturing a Global Intersection in the Middle of America

Postville, Iowa residents embrace their motto ‘Hometown to the World’ by being intentionally welcoming and working to write their city’s narrative of a brighter future today.

A reality in Postville, Iowa, in contrast to many other rural towns and cities nationwide, is that its population has been growing, is increasingly skewing younger, and is continuing to become more diverse. It is home to over thirty-four nationalities including growing Hispanic, Orthodox Jewish, Somali, and Eastern Europeans communities, and more than half of the people in Postville speak a primary language other than English in their homes.

This diversity didn’t happen overnight.

The city of some-2,500 residents in northeast Iowa has a history of proudly declaring itself to be “Hometown to the World.” The city’s motto adorns the sign welcoming residents home, as well as greeting visitors passing by – those stopping for just a bit, along with those looking for a new place to call home. The City of Postville’s official website declares, “We strive to make Postville a ‘Hometown to the World’ where people of all walks of life can call Postville home.”

Postville: A global intersection in the middle of America

But how might residents more intentionally embrace and connect with those from differing backgrounds already living in Postville? And how might they be more deliberate when considering the arrival and welcoming of future generations of Postville residents?

In the spirit of being intentional about being welcoming, local leaders turned to Community Heart & Soul. The innovative, ongoing community development model serves as a blueprint for how a community collectively identifies what it sees as its future moving forward. It begins with four phases that unite residents by asking them to reflect on and share with each other: What matters most about their community, what future they want for it, and how to achieve it.

Postville’s journey through the Heart & Soul process began in 2021 after Brenda Hackman, manager of economic development and community relations for Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, completed a four-month course on racial healing hosted by the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque.

“At the end of the course one of the questions that resonated with me was, ‘What are you doing in your personal life or in your communities to help with racial healing?’” Hackman explained. “This really made me pause and start to think of ways that I may be able to help make a difference to build relationships that may benefit a community in northeast Iowa. Working for an electric cooperative, one of our core principles is Concern for Community. A strong community also may lead to economic development for that community and region.”

That question stayed with Hackman and led her to think about Postville, with its hometown feel coupled with its expanding diversity among residents. Among her early thoughts was seeing a need for a community developer – someone who could intentionally work on developing the community. The idea came from researching small towns in the area that had a strong sense of community and support from their organizations, businesses, and residents. The common denominator tended to be a position within the community designated to work on community and economic development—someone who could serve as a liaison to the county economic developer.

While Hackman was beginning to ponder that question and wondered what answers might look like, Jason Neises, a community development officer for the foundation who facilitated the sessions Hackman attended, asked her if she’d be interested in learning about Community Heart & Soul.

“The model focuses on the positive aspects of a community and assets it has, rather than deficits, and helps residents shape a new, positive, hopeful narrative about their future,” said Neises, who, as a Certified Heart & Soul Coach, has worked with a number of towns throughout the foundation’s footprint. “It seemed like a good fit for Postville.”

Hackman shared the idea of pursuing a community engagement process to better connect residents and help them have a voice in their town’s future with both Darcy Radloff, Postville City Clerk, and Val Reinke, the executive director of Allamakee County Economic Development and Tourism. They were on board and began drafting a budget. They also approached the Postville City Council.

The three credit the city government’s early buy-in to the process for sparking early momentum. Fundraising before even beginning the process provided more fuel to the fire. This included a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant. When the city saw the group had raised that – plus $20,000 from a Rural Innovative Iowa grant, $5,000 from the Power of Connections, and $10,000 from the Iowa Area Development Group – “the city itself thought we should have some skin in the game,” Radloff said. “So, we contributed $5,000 towards this project.”

The funding helped to formalize Our Postville Heart & Soul, a resident group with support from a paid Project Coordinator and guidance from Jason Neises as the Heart & Soul Coach. The group issued routine updates at city council meetings, keeping the local government abreast of developments and engaged in the process. In November 2023, the city council passed a resolution to adopt the community’s Heart & Soul Statements – declarations formed during the Community Heart & Soul process informed by stories and data shared by residents in the spirit of discovering what matters most to them and what they value about their community.

These statements informed Our Postville Community Heart & Soul’s Action Plan. The Action Plan serves as the blueprint for how the community collectively identifies how it wishes to move forward.

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Empowering the ‘Heart’ of Postville

Residents are already taking action.

Turning their Heart & Soul Statement, “Postville prides itself on being a welcoming community to all newcomers.” into action, the Our Postville Community Heart & Soul team formed a welcoming committee: Heart of Postville, or Alma de Postville in Spanish.

An early priority: Clean up community spaces to store small home goods and clothing for newcomers, who might arrive without key essentials – like winter coats.

Last year, Postville welcomed an influx of Guatemalans and Nicaraguans. “I would see them walking to work every day wearing blankets because they didn’t have jackets,” said Crystal Duffy, the director of the local library and Our Postville Community Heart & Soul project coordinator. When she helped organize a clothing drive last year, which helped some-30 families, the items gathered took up a hefty amount of real estate in the town’s library. To collect and distribute more, the team is exploring how to use under-utilized space throughout the town and already renovating some.

Another early action: Developing a resource guide for newcomers arriving in Postville to answer questions like, ‘Where do I go to get a driver’s license?’ and ‘where are the town’s various grocery stores located?’

The document was developed by the Our Postville Heart & Soul team, which then tasked the Heart of Postville Welcoming Committee with completing it. As the Welcoming Committee finalizes the guide, they are translating it into multiple languages – from Spanish to Hebrew, to Russian and Ukrainian. Having the document accessible in various native languages builds on how the Our Postville Heart & Soul team approached its surveys when engaging residents earlier in the process. To include all residents Our Postville Heart & Soul hired translators and interpreters to ensure they could reach everyone everywhere they could.

“It is important to have things be accessible for your community,” Duffy said. “Because that is how you show you care. We can’t say we’re trying to talk to the whole community if it is not accessible for the whole community.”

Another action already happening is resuming English as Second Language courses at the Northeast Iowa Community College, which have now been in session for five months – something Duffy worked on with Sam Robertson of the Iowa Migratory Education Program. Our Postville Community Heart & Soul is also looking to resume “Taste of Postville,” an annual event not held since 2006 but remembered fondly by many residents – so much so that it was among the top answers to the surveys.

“Everyone in town wanted Taste of Postville to come back,” Duffy said, who explained the event ceased being held due to budget constraints. “There was dancing, there were comedy acts, there was cultural clothing and exchanges.” It was a great way to see – to be present to – all who are Postville.

Our Postville Community Heart & Soul is also using established events, like the Postville Farmers’ Market, to move their Action Plan from the pages into practice. Residents expressed a value in having “events that bring the community together to learn about the diversity of their town and to help build a more cohesive community.”

“Sometimes we just don’t know what’s in our own backyard until we see it right in front of us,” Reinke said. The farmers market, which the Our Postville Heart & Soul team used often to meet with residents to collect stories and hear their affirmations and concerns about their hometown, helps draw businesses out of their brick-and-mortar locations and into a centralized area that lowers barriers of access to different foods, goods, and cultures.

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Continuing today’s development tomorrow

When it comes to telling the broader story of Postville today, it is one of a place filled with people ready to not just receive but to actively welcome newcomers from near and far. Residents are including each other – young and old, native-born Iowans and transplants – and are planning and acting together.

And, in the very near future, the city government will welcome someone into a specific, new role: A community developer.

“The fact that the City of Postville is hiring a community developer is wonderful,” said Hackman, who is seeing her initial goal become a reality. “I am so proud of everyone and all their hard work that was put into Community Heart & Soul. The fourth phase of the process has ended but ‘Community Heart & Soul for Postville’ will always continue.”

Whether speaking English or Spanish, Hebrew or Somali, Ukrainian or Russian, the Our Postville Heart & Soul team and the Heart of Postville, or Alma de Postville, members, and the soon-to-be-hired community developer, are ready to listen and looking to strike up a conversation – a true strength of this global intersection in the heart of America.

Want to bring Community Heart & Soul to your town? Apply for a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant to get started. Learn more at: www.communityheartandsoul.org/seed-grants

About the Author

Ben Speggen is a learner, writer, editor, interviewer, reporter, connector, researcher, educator, and administrator with one foot in the think tank world, with with the Jefferson Educational Society, and the other in the journalism sector, with the Our Towns Civic Foundation, Erie Reader, Craftsmanship Magazine, among others. You’ll find more about him and his work on his Substack, Ben Here. Saw That.