Mid-South Delta
Initiative:
Findings and Recommendations
to Achieve Regional Policy
Impact
A PolicyLink Report
July 2005
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
PolicyLink Mission
PolicyLink is a national nonprofit research,
communications, capacity building, and
advocacy organization working to advance
policies to achieve economic and social equity.
PolicyLink collaborates with a broad range of
partners to implement strategies to ensure that
everyone—including those from low-income
communities of color—can contribute to and
benefit from economic growth and prosperity.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Context
Context
The goal of the PolicyLink consultation with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) was
to provide the foundation with ideas on how to connect its Mid South Delta Initiative
(MSDI) to regional policy impact as it considers making a new set of investments in
the Mid South region. Our initial discussions with WKKF staff surfaced the following
program design gaps, participant challenges and critical questions:
•Policy outcomes were not specifically identified as an intentional dividend of WKKF’s
first Phase of investments;
•Unfamiliarity with how Systems (e.g., Economic Development, Transportation,
Entrepreneurship, Legislative, Workforce Development) are structured and operate
creates significant challenges for easily connecting the accomplishments of
community collaborative grantees to state and national policy effort;
•No single Mid South institution currently exists to engage the nonprofit sector,
government, elected officials and private sector interests in developing a policy
agenda dedicated to creating a Delta economy that creates more opportunities for
more people to enjoy a better quality of life;
•How will a Delta policy agenda be held accountable to those who are most in need of
access to opportunity without being derailed by those currently in power?
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Context
Context (continued)
Discussions with MSDI management staff, coaches and consultants working in the
states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi revealed components of their vision
for change needed to transform the Delta as:
• A lifelong learning system focused on increasing reading and computing
literacy to 10th grade level for all Delta residents. This system will also
inform and encourage Delta residents to be informed, engaged citizens.
• A renewed spirit of hope and cooperation fueled by information about how
systems work and how they can be held accountable by Delta residents.
• An authentic (grounded in the concerns of low-income residents) and
widely shared policy agenda;
• Flexible philanthropic investment resources and timeframes that allow
Delta groups to research, mobilize their constituencies and organize policy
change campaigns;
• “Linking and Learning” peer-to-peer convening that:
– Connects Delta people, institutions and leaders to one another;
– Exposes residents to ways of thinking positively about how the future
can be better if policy changes are achieved;
– Begins to develop targeted demonstrations that can be funded to
illustrate how systems can be changed to offer more opportunity to
more people.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Context
Context (continued)
This report highlights the PolicyLink journey to embrace these
challenges en route to proposing design recommendations to the
W.K. Kellogg Foundation for a Mid South Delta Policy Change
Process. We hope that our work honors the tenacious spirit of
the Mid South practitioners we met, all of whom are working to
achieve policy impact “from the ground up.”
We believe that philanthropic, private and public sector leaders in
other regions of the country are facing similar challenges. We
hope that our path of inquiry, critical questions and
recommendations will assist you in your efforts to achieve public
policy impact in your regions.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The PolicyLink Charge
The PolicyLink Charge
PolicyLink was engaged in a rigorous exploration, assessment and
relationship building process with MSDI stakeholders that has resulted in
an outline and process of how a regional policy perspective and approach
for impact and change, with a focus on equity, and associated with a
leadership development program for policy change, can be advanced,
grounded and sustained by MSDI stakeholders. The operating assumption
throughout the assessment and policy design work was that there are
several positive results associated with existing MSDI projects and the
challenge was to “lift Up What Works.” Further, what is working, to have
maximum impact, can be cultivated and grown if embedded in a regional
equity perspective and approach. Lastly it was assumed that leadership is
vested in communities and that an intentional leadership development for
policy change program, focused on strategically connected communitybased individuals, is required to implement a regional policy equity
agenda.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The PolicyLink Charge
The PolicyLink Charge (continued)
These operating assumptions guided the PolicyLink Delta work, along with
several questions including:
• Where are the opportunities for regional connections and policy options—lowhanging fruit;
• What roles and capacities are needed to make intra and interstate
collaborative connections and partnerships;
• How can the MSDI components already established in the region, be
consolidated and connected with a regional equity policy agenda;
• Where are the policy levers for regional systems and how do we connect the
known MSDI assets to these systems for impact and change;
• How are MSDI stakeholders positioned to advance regional equity in terms of
their programmatic work, networks, and analysis; and
• Are there anchor organizations within the region that could involve
communities, develop leaders, provide continuity and bring new interest and
partners together to advance a proactive policy, and conduct technical
research and analysis to ground regional equity work.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The PolicyLink Charge
The PolicyLink Charge (continued)
The report lays out a series of regional policy system maps that depict graphically with
GIS technology:
• The location of MSDI networks nodes or points of synergy;
• The location of MSDI investments and assets throughout the region;
• An overlay of local, regional and state policy venues that could be engaged to reinforce
that are working or could be taken to scale;
• The reach of regional, state and federal policies, or resource streams that could be
supportive of the MSDI mission and practice;
• Points of possible connection for workforce development, transportation and enterprise
development that are suggestive of intra and interstate regional cooperation supportive
of the MSDI; and
• The reach of key public institutions.
Additionally, the report identifies opportunities for connections and policy levers, and a
strategy for implementing policy action. Finally, the report outlines various roles and key
capacities needed for existing MSDI stakeholders and others that need to be at the table
and the implicit and necessary role for leadership development for policy change.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Recommendations
The Way Forward
Recommendations
To create a supportive policy infrastructure to achieve regional
equity in the Mid South Delta, the MSDI should in Phase 2B:
• devote more strategically focused resources
• develop new capacities
• foster new collaborations
• create new venues for conversation and action
• pursue intentional leadership development for policy change
• apply appropriate technology for research, communication, and
advocacy
• involve elected officials at the front end
• promote private sector alliances
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Recommendations
Key Activities to Build Momentum for
Regional Equity in the Delta
• framing and analyzing a shared vision
• supporting and cultivating leaders
• building and supporting organizations
• creating and strengthening alliances
• identifying political opportunities
• employing patient capital with a reasonable time frame
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Next Steps
•
•
•
Determine the key geographic targets, issue focuses - economic
development, workforce development, or youth - and roles of the various
partners.
Consider a concentrated effort in key locations designed to demonstrate
how to advance regional policy impact, surfacing best practices in key
locations that can be replicated, and leverage other resources and partners
to achieve region-wide policy impact.
Pursue a process over the short term for PolicyLink and key partners to
form a planning team to determine points of maximum synergy (lowhanging fruit) that would consider:
issue interest;
existing Kellogg investments (and others) that have policy
promise;
community-based organizations and nonprofits;
business formations;
current and potential intersections of policy venues/targets that
could be aligned toward policy impact;
determination of roles and capacity requirements for partners;
development of a curriculum outline for leadership development
for policy change.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
A Vision Realized
MISSISSIPPI DELTA JUBILEE COALITION
CELEBRATES POLICY WINS
Associate Press—July 4, 2010, Greenville Mississippi----The Jubilee Coalition— becoming a widely known regional equity
Movement and ever-present policy player in the lower Mississippi Delta region---came together to celebrate its first five
years and the growing number of policy victories focused on regional social and economic equity.
Mississippi Delta Jubilee Coalition Celebrates Policy Wins
July 4, 2010, Angela Glover Blackwell reporting from Greenville, Mississippi – The Jubilee
Coalition – becoming a serious, more widely known policy player in the lower Mississippi Delta
region – came together to celebrate its first five years and a string of policy victories focused on
social and economic equity.
The promise held out by the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission came
full circle at the celebration. The Commission wanted to systematically engage the full
natural, cultural, and human resources of the region. That agenda went essentially unadvanced in the mid 90s,
creating a void in attention, leadership, and the necessary public will to tap the
Delta’s potential and address the glaring reality of deep poverty, neglect, and racism.
That void begin to be filled in 1997 with a round of strategic investments by the Kellogg
Foundation in emerging community projects focused on creating economic opportunity and
developing community leadership in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The Jubilee Coalition is the legacy of
that 15-year investment that came to be known as the Mid South Delta Initiative.
The high number of journalists covering the event reflected the momentum the Coalition has
created through recent policy wins:
•
•
•
•
In 2007, rural parents organized a coalition with suburban schools, the state chamber of commerce, and rural
legislators to revise Education allocation formulas so that rural and inner city districts could increase teacher pay
and build modern school facilities.
That same year, Jubilee secured increased rural transportation finance using U.S. Homeland Security monies for
public safety. Workforce training and educational institutions have experienced improved employment impact
due to dependable transportation.
Just last year, residents sponsored a citizens’ referendum directing a portion of state gaming profits to fund
preschool fees for qualifying households.
Earlier this spring, Jubilee catalyzed a coalition of the unemployed that worked with the State Employment
Security Commission and legislators to spread Workforce Training Investment dollars beyond community
colleges and universities to professional trade schools.
Mississippi Delta Jubilee Coalition Celebrates Policy Wins
continued
At the breakfast press briefing, Jubilee policy activists detailed the elements for success now part of the operating
culture of the coalition.
According to Shelia Shaw, northeast Louisiana Jubilee policy coordinator, it starts by identifying the self-interests
of people where they live, and building a base of similar interests. “Everyone in the Delta has something to
contribute to improve community quality of life. People want to communicate, serve, and have purpose. We found
collective voice to become an active policy player. Patient capital investment from the Kellogg Foundation made
this possible.”
Mississippi policy coordinator Robert Johnson notes “we began to connect the resources and capacities of regional
intermediaries, and a host of strategic nonprofit services. A new resident-led policy agenda emerged.” Jubilee
invited the participation of the business community, elected officials, and key regional institutions to develop
mutually beneficial solutions. This was the beginning of the Delta Coordinating Council, a venue that reaches three
states and is driven by citizen interests.
Youth leaders Temeka Rollins and Tim Thomas talked to the audience about the importance of ongoing leadership
development for policy change. “To achieve regional equity, you must have intentional leadership development
connected to solving real problems”. The new Regional Equity Leadership Academy helps groom a cadre of Delta
policy advocates to hone their research and communication skills under the watchful eye of mentors of the
policymaking process.
What’s next? Jubilee leaders agree that continuous investment in the capacity of organizations and individuals will
attract influential players to the table as partners in solution making—instead of targets.
This reporter can only assume that the sky is the limit and looks forward to the Jubilee 2015.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
PolicyLink Mission
Equitable Development Principles
Integrate people and place
Reduce local and regional disparities
Promote double-bottom line investments
Ensure meaningful resident/community participation, leadership
and ownership
Regional Equity in the Delta
Link people to regional opportunity
Achieve jurisdictional cooperation
Promote equitable public investment
Make all communities stable, healthy, and livable
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Today’s Objectives
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Goals
• describe theory of change
• identify policy opportunities
• detail implementation strategy
• discuss next steps
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Theory of Change
policy impact
building public will
communication
program development
research
leadership development
recruitment
civic engagement activities
constituency development
PolicyLink Logic Model for MSDI Policy Change
Strategies
•Peer-based policy convening and learning involving low-income residents, the
CBOs that serve them, intermediaries and small business owners to ID and
prioritize entry points for policy change (Convening, Training & Policy Working
Groups).
•Work with low-income serving nonprofits, small business leaders, community
leaders and elected officials to lead policy change campaigns (Organizing &
Mobilizing for Policy Change).
•Develop public interest research structure to inform and engage the public in
discussions about the benefits of policy change (ST Policy Summits).
Influential Factors
4
Proximity to financial investment,
employment, entrepreneurship and
transportation infrastructure.
A Plantation System that historically
compelled the majority of people to give up
decision-making authority to a landed
oligarchy that decides their fate for them.
Absence of reading and computing literacy
that prevents many of the Delta’s lowincome residents from participating fully in
the economy or civic life.
Strong, faith-based approaches to learning
and living.
5
6
Assumption
•WKKF grantees have connected low-income Delta residents to opportunities that
enhance their abilities to earn incomes and access resources that improve the
region’s overall life quality.
•If supportive mechanisms, knowledge and organizing resources are made
available to the Delta’s low-income communities, leaders will emerge who are
willing and able to participate in policy change that benefits those communities.
Problem or Issue
1
• Policy impact eludes MSDI because little time or knowledge
resources have been directly invested in pursuing policy-related
impact.
• WKKF grantees have accumulated a vast array of policy-related
experiences – but most pursue their policy-related work under a cloak
of silence to preserve their anonymity (and public funding).
• Many WKKF grantees pursue their policy goals without benefit of an
engaged and vocal low-income constituency or membership. They
also frequently operate without the strength of actively engaged
nonprofit industry partners (associations).
• Little investment has occurred to create the institutional capacity
necessary to research public policy challenges with the intent of
informing and mobilizing concerned residents about decisions that
affect their life quality. As a result, resident-led public policy
campaigns have been largely ignored as a strategy.
• Absence of an informed and engaged public in the Delta’s poorest
communities means blunts elected officials’ accountability for
supporting policy change that links low-income people to opportunity.
• MSDI leadership training has been pursued almost exclusively with
individuals, many of whom are disconnected from followers and
unaware that policy change is a desirable outcome for their work.
• No programs currently exist to surmount these policy challenges.
Community Needs / Assets
Desired Outcomes
3
•Increase in the number of state
legislative campaigns mobilized from
the resident and nonprofit constituency
level;
•Increased formation of statewide and
regional nonprofit associations
organized and responding to lowincome constituency and membership
policy priorities;
•Increased growth in the number and
membership of entrepreneur and small
business associations advocating for
economic development policy change.
•Leadership development programming
for nonprofit organization, elected
officials and business leaders who can
commit to playing a mobilizing and
organizing role for policy change in their
states.
• MSDI Practitioners are aware that systems change is needed for long-term progress and sustainability, but are often stymied about how to pursue a policy change 2
process.
• Agencies and multiple complementary levels of government (Planning and Development Districts, counties and parishes, workforce investment districts, etc.) are aware
that coordinating efforts is needed due to shrinking resource levels, but are disengaged from working with one another, and therefore unprepared to endure a diminishing
resource environment.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Integrating Organizational Approaches to Policy
Change
citizen-based organizing activities
relational
networking
established
social capital
Year 1
shared
knowledge
Year 2
leadership
emerges
civic
engagement
policy
opportunity
Year 3
campaigns
& actions
Year 4
Community-based development organizations
recruit
organizational
partners
civic
engagement
constituency
development
leadership
development
18 months
research
Build public
will
recruit
policy
players
Year 2
campaigns
& actions
Year 3
regional nonprofit intermediaries
research
6 months
communications
recruit
policy players
campaigns
& actions
10 weeks
Click here:
Return to Building Regionwide Policy Impact
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
WKKF Grantee Organizational Approaches to Policy Change
Intermediaries
The Enterprise Corporation for the Delta influences national-level policy around housing,
microenterprise, and the Community Reinvestment Act proposed rollback. It is
also a long-time sponsor of the Good Faith Fund’s work in TANF and workforce
development policy.
The Arkansas-based Good Faith Fund secured $8 million in state Temporary Assistance
for Needy Family resources for replicating the Career Pathways Program (Pathways)
at nine Arkansas community colleges. This program is helping to connect low-wage
workers to higher paying jobs in the health care industry.
The MS Childrens’ Defense Fund has served to affect change making in the region’s
criminal justice system via the “Schools: Pipelines to Prisons Project”. CDF has also
worked to engage low-income citizens in conducting their own research-based
policy impact work via the 1999 Devolution Project that documented the prospects of
families leaving the TANF system. A more recent Southern Rural Black Womens’
Initiative uses convening to create awareness and motivate low-income women to
become change-makers in their communities by exerting their will to create change in
their own lives and providing them with the knowledge of how to work with others to affect
change that benefits the communities they live in.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
WKKF Grantee Organizational Approaches to Policy Change
Community Collaboratives & CBOs
HEGA has successfully informed public policy and practice in transportation by
developing a multi-county van transport network that connects the remote communities of
southwest Washington County (Hollandale, Glen Allan and Arcola) to Greenville, MS – the
county’s job-generating driver for the region. Access to medical and employment training
services are also based in and around Greenville. This strategy is helping these communities
retain their connection to the region and improve their residents’ quality of life.
Jefferson County Jobs Initiative has informed the public discussion around job training and
livable wage efforts in Pine Bluff, AR. In addition to their living wage campaigns, JCJI is a
host site for informing low-income and working families about the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) via a series of free tax preparation sites or VITA sites – thereby reducing the impact of
Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) marketed in low-income neighborhoods at exorbitant rates
by nationally known tax preparation companies.
Northeast Louisiana Delta CDC successfully completed its round 1 MSDI grant with WKKF in
2001, and at that time applied for and received a $674,000 investment to become a regional
intermediary for building nonprofit capacity in an 8-parish region of Northeast Louisiana.
Already known for its economic development victories, the organization has formed multiple
coalitions over the past 6 years to successfully undertake the funding and building of
a new high school, and is currently involved in a campaign to re-allocate state monies to
create a regional Northeast Louisiana Delta Learning Center on the site of a failed private
adult prison. Its Louisiana Delta Coalition for Education and Economic Development – a biracial citizens’ coalition - has partnered with the LA legislature, State Board of Regents, Area
Workforce Investment Boards and State Land Grant Institutions to design a Lifelong Learning
curriculum and establish the state continuing learning center.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
WKKF Grantee Organizational Approaches to Policy Change
Intermediary as Resident Organizer
The Arkansas Public Policy Forum (APPF) was launched in 1963 by an interfaith /
interracial group of women determined to improve conditions for their children and
families in the wake of court-mandated integration at Central High. Over the past 3
years, the panel has extended itself beyond its traditional metropolitan and environmental
activist base (Little Rock, Fayetteville and Springdale, AR) to clusters of rural
communities in the Arkansas Delta using a community-responsive organizing and
public interest research approach. MWorking with people where they areÓhas led the
organization to build active and engaged members in the Arkansas Delta communities of
Forrest City, Marianna, Marvel, Dumas, Grady, and Gould. These community members
are working APPF to pursue their own community change agendas, while at the same
time participating with APPF to wage successful campaigns to extend the application of
Temporary Assistance for Needy Family benefits and affect the statewide debate
surrounding school district consolidation and its impact on rural communities.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Attributes and Functions of Policy Change Agents
Organizations advancing policy change:
attributes
organizing orientation
competence
humility
innovation
sensitivity
willingness to lead
responsiveness
political analysis
independence
functions
assessment
program design
resource development
maintaining collaboration
visioning
capacity building
research and analysis
advocacy
public will building
communications/networking
fiscal administration
evaluation
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Road Traveled
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Road Traveled
• context
• history of previous investments
• institutions in the region
• implications
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Population Density
Memphis
Little Rock
Jackson
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Concentrated Poverty
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Concentration of Poverty by Race
MSDI Region: Population Distribution by Race
Hispanic
1%
Hispanic
1%
White
22%
Black
38%
White
61%
Black
77%
Population in
MSDI Region
Note: Asian and Native American Populations are less than 1% in each region.
Population in
High Poverty Tracts
Source: US Census
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Concentration of Poverty by Metropolitan Area
1.7 Population and Poverty, MSDI and Select Metros, 2000
60%
Percent of Populat ion
50%
40%
Geography
Population
Percent In
Poverty
South Region
MSDI
High Poverty MSDI
Little Rock, AR
Baton Rouge, LA
Jackson, MS
100,236,820
1,680,586
482,057
583,845
602,894
440,801
14%
22
39
12
16
16
30%
20%
South Region
10%
0%
MSDI
High
Poverty
MSDI
Little
Baton
Jackson,
Rock, AR Rogue, LA
MS
Memphis,
TN
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Educational Attainment
Hispanic
Black
Delta
White
Non-Delta
Hispanic
Black
LSHS
HSOnly
Some College
Bachelor's+
White
0%
20%
40%
60%
from A Profile of the Mid-South Mississippi Delta Region
courtesy: Bo Beaulieu
Southern Rural Development Center
80%
100%
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Commissions: Lessons
•
Tens of millions of dollars were invested in commission studies of
the Delta states
•
Most commissions document the human suffering of the Delta to
justify investing in infrastructure and governance
•
Most recommendations result in investment in government and
institutions to address structural challenges
•
Little attention was given to building Delta community-based
organizations’ or residents’ capacity to respond to opportunities
•
Addressing long-term, generational poverty will require using
resources more flexibly - one-size-fits-all does not work for those
trapped on islands of poverty
People who must benefit from poverty reduction efforts have to be
actively engaged and self-motivated to sustain their momentum
•
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Road Traveled
What Delta Practitioners Told Us
(needed for transformation)
•
•
•
•
•
a lifelong learning system focused on increasing reading and
computing literacy for employment
a renewed spirit of hope and cooperation fueled by information about
how systems work and how they can be held accountable by Delta
residents
an authentic policy agenda of shared interests
resources for flexible philanthropic investment with realistic
timeframes
a resident-centered association that advocates for authentic systems
change by Delta residents
linking organizations that:
• connect Delta people, institutions and leaders to one another
• expose residents to ways of thinking positively about themselves and
Delta resources
• invest in targeted demonstrations of systems change to create
opportunity for more people.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Road Traveled: Lessons
•
Expanding Phase One investments in partner nonprofits and
community coalitions can create more access to opportunity for lowincome people
•
Investing in creating awareness, organizing, and mobilizing capacity
of the Delta’s poorest communities (and their organizations) will
create longer term impact on the Delta’s vision of itself
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
The Road Traveled
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Principles of Investigation
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Principles of Investigation
• investment in capacity of people
• lifelong learning
• build on existing investments
• link to regional institutions
• community building roles for partners
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Nonprofit Infrastructure
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Concentrated Poverty
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Nonprofit Infrastructure
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
W.K. Kellogg Investments 1997-2005
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
W.K. Kellogg Mid South Delta Grants
Beacons & Bridges
TBI
EAYC
JCJI
GFF
Desha County Team
CURET
QCDO
DSU
S’East AR Team
MDWA
MSD LISC
Belzoni-Humphreys
HEGA
W. Holmes
E. Carroll
Renewal
NELDCD
C
EC
D
FMS
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Community Economic Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Community Economic Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Employment Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Employment Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Youth Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Youth Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Policy Infrastructure Potential
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Business Density
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Business Density
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Leadership Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Leadership Development Investments
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Leadership Development Recommendations
•
Design a leadership curriculum in partnership with CBOs and membership
organizations that serve low-wealth communities. Work with these
partners to inform, identify and recruit low-income Delta participants into
the MSDL program.
•
Pursue a train-the-trainer host agency strategy to extend the reach of the
MSDL curriculum to participants across the Delta and 3-state region.
(Similar to the way that the FastTrac small business development
curriculum is offered across the 3 states via the ECD / Kaufmann
Foundation partnership)
•
Recruit participants who have demonstrated a commitment to pursuing
and leading community change for public benefit.
•
Develop policy learning teams based on leadership participants’
expressed interests for Delta change.
•
Leadership participants will further investigate policy opportunities by
using primary source and community data gathering to enhance their own
understanding of an issue. These community survey efforts might also
provide opportunities to engage a larger group of Delta residents in
organizing for policy challenge
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
MSDI Policy Opportunities
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Nonprofit – Policy Interfaces
Matrix of organizations’ access to policy venues
Nonprofit
Workforce
Investment
Boards
Planning &
Development
Districts
EZ/EC
State
Government
ECD
NELCDC
Good Faith
Fund
HEGA
E. AR Youth
Consortium
Potential for access
Actual access
Federal
Government
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Enterprise Zones
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Planning and Development Districts
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Workforce Investment Boards
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Employment Development Venues
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Implementation Strategy
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Implementation Strategy
• functions
• building capacity
• emerging infrastructure
• building region-wide policy impact
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Theory of Change
policy impact
building public will
communication
program development
research
leadership development
recruitment
civic engagement activities
constituency development
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Facilitating Organizations
Facilitating
Organizations
Facilitating Organizations’ Role
Who: regional intermediaries, CBOs, other TA
providers
What: Training and mentoring of coalitions of
community-based organizations and resident-led
alliances. Help these groups articulate their own change
agendas. Assist with issue-oriented research and
demonstration design of systems change projects.
Assist in designing campaigns to build public will.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Community Based Organizations
Role of Community Based Organizations
CBOs
Mobilized for
Policy
Change
Who: WKKF community coalition grantees, CBOs and
other allied nonprofits connected to low-income
constituencies and organized around a specific
geography, area of interest or industry.
What: energized coalitions of nonprofits identify action
opportunities for State policy-change that create
opportunity for low-income persons.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Residents
Residents Organized
for Policy Change
Role of Residents
Who: concerned residents respond to the opportunity
to change their community’s future for the better.
What: an opportunity for communities to participate in
a facilitated program to form local change agendas
through resident engagement, and to implement them
using a combination of foundation and local
resources.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Building Policy Change Capacity
What: Leadership activities and training that build participants’ understanding
of:
Educate
Integrate
Engage!
• Delta governance structures and their influence on commerce, education,
workforce development, health, housing and transportation;
• the policymaking process, the actors involved, and roles of concerned
residents and community-based organizations;
• connections to the world economy, and opportunities for strengthening this
connection to create more economic impact for the region’s people;
• how to engage people across longstanding racial and ethnic boundaries
to participate in personal, community, and systems change;
• committing with other leaders and residents on a policy change objective;
• how to harness resources and participation to demonstrate and
document effective, sustainable programs that link people to opportunity
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Policy Working Groups
Who:
representative leaders of facilitating organizations
Delta Residents Organized for Policy Change
community-based organization alliances
allied nonprofits
various units of government (PDDs, WIBs, EZ/EC
administrators)
private sector leaders and elected officials
What:
ad-hoc committees convened within respective
states on an as-needed basis to propose economic
and workforce development policy changes that
respond to the policy targets identified by
residents, CBOs and facilitating organizations
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Moving to Mid South Delta Policy Impact
GOAL
access to
economic opportunity
for
all Delta residents
policy impact
2b
building public will
program
development
Residents
Organized for
Policy Change
communication
Role of Residents
Who: concerned residents respond to the opportunity
to change their community’s future for the better.
research
What: Build civic infrastructure.
Supports resident engagement, surfaces change
agendas and forms strong organizations to pursue
them.
leadership development
recruitment
civic engagement
constituency
Facilitating
Organizations
1
3a
Leadership for
Policy Change
3b Policy Working Groups
4
State
Policy
Summits
Facilitating
Organizations’ Role
Who: regional
intermediaries, CBOs,
other TA providers
What: training,
Convening, and
Mentoring for Coalitions
of Community-based
Organizations and
resident-led alliances.
2a
State Policy Summits
Who: Public/Private sector.
CBOs
Mobilized for
Policy
Change
Role of Community Based Organizations
Who: WKKF grantees, CBOs and other allied nonprofits
connect to low-income constituency. Self-organized around
geography, area of interest, industry.
What: energized coalitions of nonprofits identify action
opportunities for State policy-change that create opportunity
for low-income persons.
What: Launch campaigns to build
public awareness and support for
state policy agendas.
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Building Regionwide Policy Impact
?
AR Facilitating
Organizations
ACORN
ve
Good Faith Fund
LA Facilitating
Organizations
r
Se
Arkansas Public Policy Forum
Serve
LA
CommunityServing &
Citizen-led
Northeast Louisiana Delta CDC
Renewal, Inc.
manage policy programs?
orient and coach facilitating
organizations as they fulfill their
role of assisting and mentoring
resident and CBO groups?
Region-wide Facilitating
Delta Citizens’ Alliance
Enterprise Corporation of the Delta
MS
CommunityServing &
Citizen-led
Foundation for the Mid South
Mid South Delta Leaders
Mid South Delta LISC
Se
rve
Southern University AG Extension
AR
CommunityServing &
Citizen-led
Who will:
ensure that values and intent of
the program design are
maintained throughout
implementation?
ensure that policy activities are
relevant and present throughout
Phase 2b?
MS Children’s Defense Fund
Quitman County Development
Organization
MS Facilitating
Organizations
Click here:
Integrate approaches to Policy Change
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Theory of Change
policy impact
building public will
communication
program development
research
leadership development
recruitment
civic engagement activities
constituency development
Mid-South Delta Initiative:
Voices of the Delta
Batesville Job Corps Center MS Job Corps Center Little Rock Job Corps Center LA Job Corps Centers Mississippi Department of Employment Security Office
of Employment Services Tri-County Workforce Alliance YouthBuild HEGA Arkansas Association of Two Year Colleges Memphis Chamber East
Arkansas Youth Consortium Enterprise Arkansas Enterprise Community Workforce Investment Boards Community Action Agencies Industry Partners
Program Good Faith Fund AR Women’s Business Development Center Renewal, Inc. MACE Womens Business Center FastTrac FirstStep Mississippi
Economic Council Mississippi Development Authority Minority and Small Business Development Division Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce Mississippi
Small Business Development Center State Office Arkansas Small Business
Development Center State Office Louisiana Small Business Development Center
Industrial Foundation of Washington County F Beacons & Bridges Northeast Louisiana Delta CDC Coahoma County Business Development Center F Mississippi
Technology Alliance Innovation Center Mississippi Enterprise for Technology Arkansas Science and Technology Authority Mississippi Social Science Research
Center Arkansas Certified Development Corp University of MS F Arkansas Policy Foundation F Stennis Institute Clinton School of Public Service The Arkansas
Public Policy Panel Sierra Club ACORN MS Legal Services ACLU F Kids Count Coalition Advocates for Children & Families SMHA F National Wildlife
Federation Gulf States Restoration Network Louisiana PIRG LEAN Mississippi State Association of Cooperatives University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Delta Business Journal Emerich Family newspapers Enterprise Corporation of the Delta Community Resource Group, Inc Minority Capital Fund of
Mississippi, Inc. Southern Mutual Financial Services Southern Development Bank Corp Mississippi Action for Community Education Winthrop Rockefeller
Foundation University Research Center of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Quitman County Development Organization / Tri County FCU Hope
Community Credit Union Friends of Children of Mississippi F Southern Financial Partners Mississippi Micro-Enterprise Association Network Memphis Branch
of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis F Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta Delta Wire
Manpower, Inc. Kelly Services Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Northeast Louisiana Children’s Health Network Delta Health Center Mississippi
State Board of Health West Holmes CDC Mississippi Forum on Children & Families Children’
Children’s Defense Fund Arkansas Division of Children and Family
Services Childrens’ Legislative Cabinet Area Agency on Aging of Southeast Arkansas South Delta Area Agency on Aging Central MS Area Agency on Aging
East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging CareLink: Central Arkansas Area Agency on Aging Madison Council on Aging Ouachita Council on Aging MS Gaming
Commission Industrial Foundation of Washington County State Parks and County Park Commissions Director of Arkansas Dept. of Parks and Tourism
Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi F Hollandale Economic and Community Development Foundation F Delta Regional Authority Tennessee Valley Authority
Community Transportation Association of America Mid South Delta Leaders Nature Conservancy / Ducks Unlimited 100 Black Men in the Delta Masons
Youth 4-H networks State Associations of PTA’s Fannie Mae Foundation Southeastern Regional Office (SERO) Chicot Housing Assistance Corporation Delta
Research & Educational Development Crowley’s Ridge Development Council, Inc. Mid S. Delta LISC Quitman County Youth Credit Union Southern
Financial Partners Hope Community Credit Union Little Rock Federal Reserve East Carroll & Madison Parishes MS Workforce Investment Network S. Delta
Planning & Development Dist Central MS Planning & Development Districts Central Arkansas Workforce Investment Area Arkansas Workforce Center at Brinkley
Canton Vocational Center
Hinds Community College
Holmes Community College Meridian Community College Mississippi Delta Community College
Crowley's Ridge Vo-Tech School Phillips County Community College
Pines Technical College Jackson Career Development Center Louisiana Tech College
Louisiana Technical College Delta Great Falls Technical College Indianola Community College Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Mid South
Community College Southeast Arkansas Community College Coahoma Opportunities Mid-Delta Community Services
Crowley's Ridge Development Council
Delta Community Action Association East Carroll Community Action Agency