Rural Initiatives

There is a tremendous amount of redevelopment and change happening across the region that is lifting up the Delta. The Mid South Delta Initiative is just one of hundreds of change-making efforts underway. Many of the change strategies people and groups are shaping in the Mississippi Delta are examples of a bigger, national and global movement to sustain and invigorate rural places.

W. K. Kellogg Foundation includes ten Delta area groups for Rural People, Rural Policy Initiative

Ten Delta organizations are among the 56 participants in the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's (WKKF) Rural People, Rural Policy Initiative (RPRP). This multi-year, national initiative seeks to build and strengthen skilled networks and organizations to advocate and act in the rural policy arena. RPRP energizes and equips networks of organizations to shape policy that improves the lives of rural people and the vitality of rural communities. Organizations selected in the Mid South Rural Policy Network are:

• Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center, Inc., Marvell, Arkansas
• Southern Good Faith Fund, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
• Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Partnership For A Healthy Scott County, Forest, Mississippi
• The John C. Stennis Institute of Government, Mississippi State, Mississippi
• St. James Council on Aging and St. James Parish Department of Human Resources, Convent, Louisiana
• Louisiana Public Health Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Action Communication and Education Reform, Montgomery County, Mississippi
• Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Southeastern Prison Education Advocacy & Reformation Project, Greenville, Mississippi

"These groups make a difference in the communities they serve every day," said Rick Foster, vice president of programs for the Kellogg Foundation. "We want to learn from them what's working and what we can do together to improve the vitality of rural communities and the lives of the residents. We believe policies that impact rural people are best informed by rural citizens themselves."

WKKF is also designing other ways organizations may engage in rural policy. The Foundation's Mid South Delta Initiative is developing a regional policy network in the Delta, so these groups and others engaged in policy can participate in shaping new action in the region.

Please visit www.wkkf.org/rprp for project updates.