According to HUD officials, the funding will help give Helena-West Helena households a greater opportunity to find housing or keep their current homes.

SBCP shared Arkansas’ portion of the state’s $64,521 HUD grant money with Jonesboro and Russellville. The Arkansas funds were part of $42 million in grant money issued by HUD nationwide. SBCP’s share totals $20,620.

SBCP, formerly Southern Good Faith Fund, is a 501 (c) (3) founded in 1988 to revitalize the rural Mid-South by building communities and changing lives. Most of the communities SBCP serves are located in the impoverished Mississippi Delta. SBCP directly helps individuals and families build educational, financial and other material assets so they can create better futures for themselves and their families.

CDFIs, the vast majority of which are nonprofits, provide financial services—lending and investment—in low income neighborhoods. Typically, most people know of them as community development banks or community development loan funds that lend for affordable housing and economic development, taking higher-risk projects that commercial lenders typically eschew. Among the better known CDFIs are Boston Community Capital, Enterprise Corporation of the Delta in Jackson, Miss., the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises in Berea, Ky., IFF (which used to be known as the Illinois Facilities Fund), the Reinvestment Fund in Philadelphia, and Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia, Ark. Some 860 CDFIs around the nation have been certified at one time or another by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for funding through its CDFI Fund.

The announcement was made Tuesday, March 6, at a press conference on the Henderson campus.

“I am honored to have been selected as the next president of Henderson State University,” Jones said. “Sharon (Jones’ wife) and I are grateful for this opportunity and we want to thank the Board of Trustees for the confidence they have shown in us with this selection.

“I am looking forward to serving the faculty, staff, students and the Arkadelphia community over the coming years as we build upon the successes of the past to make Henderson an even greater university in the future,” he said.

“We are so excited about the progress that we have accomplished and the completed project that will consist of at least 29 sites throughout Phillips County,” commented Cunningham. Cunningham explained that 21 of these sites are already in place with 15 more to be placed by July of this year.

Duncan, Alligator, Shelby and Hope are members of an alliance called DASH (an acronym formed from the towns’ names). Tuesday, DASH released a published strategic community plan, a 21-page roadmap that they hope will help fight poverty, disease and housing problems while also promoting education and leadership development.

Goals include better schools, a yard-of-the-month program to promote cleaner streets, community career days, and quarterly racial dialogs, among many other ideas.

Ms. Dillehay purchased Hot Springs Medical Rentals during the summer of 2011 with financial assistance through Southern Bancorp Bank. With assistance from Brad Taylor, senior vice president at Southern Bancorp Bank, Ms. Dillehay was approved for a loan from Southern Bancorp, which was funded by an Economic Development Program (EDP) advance from FHLB Dallas. She also qualified for an accompanying $25,000 EDPPlus grant to assist with purchase and start-up costs.

“When immigrants have a public voice and are given the resources they need to organize their communities and take on tangible community development projects, they prosper,” remarked Ms. Mireya Reith, Executive Director of AUCC. “And when the immigrant population prospers, the whole state prospers.”

AUCC’s strategy strongly supports WRF’s goal of reducing poverty in Arkansas.

Building the capacity of early-stage nonprofits such as AUCC is an important way in which WRF can serve the people of Arkansas. Throughout its history, WRF has helped to incubate emerging nonprofits that address critical needs. Several organizations that were supported by WRF at an early stage, such as Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Southern Bancorp Community Partners, have grown into major institutions that are moving Arkansas from poverty to prosperity. AUCC holds that same potential.

“AUCC is establishing itself as an important advocate for the immigrant community,” noted Dr. Sherece West, president and CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. “By investing in its growth, we are investing in a stronger, more effective nonprofit infrastructure across the state.”

Of the total grant, the city gets $100,000 of that and the county will get the rest.

So far, the City of Clarksdale has demolished three homes for a total of $6,321.96, but the city has a list of 14 more houses around the city that are approved for demolition and another six houses that will be put before the city board of commissioners.

Southern Bancorp, which is classified as a community development financial institution by the United States Treasury, has non-profit community development as part of its mission statement, and the group has already targeted other counties where the banks’ branches are located, with anything from programs to assist in education to new community-wide facilities built.

Main Street Helena’s mission is to promote the preservation and economic revitalization of the historic downtown business district. Main Street Helena recently received several grants to be implemented over the coming year. A $39,125 USDA Farmer’s Market Promotion grant and an $8,400 Arkansas Community Foundation grant will be used to increase access to the Farmer’s Market through EBT and debit card equipment, and better marketing materials among other things. A $4,000 Federal Home Loan Bank grant is currently being used to assess several downtown buildings for potential renovation.