CLEARBROOK, Minn. — A workshop series led by local women in Clearbrook, Minnesota, has people driving from out of town — from as far away as the Twin Cities — to learn new skills, said Juleigh Prosser, manager for Living Local Women. A new program is also in the works for local girls in collaboration with Clearbrook’s school.
Both projects have recently received $5,000 each from the Northwest Minnesota Women’s Fund, a member of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation’s family of funds.
“We’re excited about what we can create next,” Prosser said.
Living Local Women started last February, bringing an area woman to Clearbrook each month for a workshop featuring a unique skill. Some workshops have included gardening, fermenting food, making cheese, mixing hair tinctures and harvesting local plants. The 12th workshop, on soap-making, is scheduled for the end of January, and the grant from the Northwest Minnesota Women’s Fund has ensured 12 more workshops through the rest of 2025. There are regulars and newcomers at each, Prosser said, and women often bring their children. Some women have told her they plan their whole month around the event.
“There are women that get together that come with their friends,” she said. “It’s kind of their Saturday morning out thing. … You have a room full of women in the community that take care of each other. It’s really amazing.”
The idea for Living Local Women came when Prosser and others were having a conversation at Clearbrook’s art studio and were surprised by one of them having skills the others didn’t know about. Prosser started looking into creating a program through which women could share their skills with others. She worked with Clear Waters Life Center as a fiscal agent to hold the funding, for which she wrote the grants. The workshops have drawn attendees from out of town and have yielded as many as 26, which Prosser said is big for a small town like Clearbrook. Though it is advertised to women, men have also attended.
Eventually, Prosser started to ask herself: What could be done for girls?
She recalled the life skills classes she took in school, such as sewing, cooking, woodworking and others, and wondered how she could bring those back. She surveyed the women who came to Living Local Women workshops for their top 24 things girls from grades 7-12 should learn, and came out of the surveys with 300 things across 10 to 12 categories. She got the city and local teachers on board, as well as the superintendent of Clearbrook’s school. The project, called Life Skills for Girls, is still in the planning stages.
There are about 140 to 160 girls in the area who can benefit from the program, Prosser said. The superintendent asked for the program to be done in the school, as it will be a space with trusted adults. Those teaching the program will already be working at the school or will be background checked. The program will be voluntary for girls in the seventh to 12th grade and be done during a study hall period, with different topics each month split into two or three sections for different age groups.
Some of the topics Prosser said the program could cover are how to sew a button on a shirt, fill out job applications, or ways to manage anxiety and stress.
She said this is an example of someone being able to make a difference in their community.
“I am delighted,” she said. “One person does make a difference. I’m just doing what I know and if everybody did what they knew, imagine what it would be like. A lot of the time we stop because we don’t think that our contributions matter. I have the pleasure and the blessing of seeing my little skill and what I did matter in many people’s lives. I’m very blessed.”
Otto is the region reporter for the Obituary.