LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (July 6, 2009) – The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (WRF) has selected Southern Bancorp to provide all primary banking services for the Foundation.

Following a competitive request for proposal process, WRF selected Southern Bancorp based on Southern’s services, rates and fit with the Foundation’s mission. By banking with Southern Bancorp, WRF will leverage its financial resources to deliver greater mission impact beyond traditional grantmaking. This new business relationship between WRF and Southern Bancorp represents a mission-related investment that will enable Southern Bancorp to increase its impact in distressed rural communities and thus support the mission of WRF.

In his 1997 book Rising Tide, which chronicles the great Mississippi River flood of 1927, author John Barry closes with a rumination on societal changes.

“A society does not change in sudden jumps,” Barry writes. “Rather, it moves in multiple small steps along a broad front. Most of these steps are parallel if not quite simultaneous; some advance farther than others, and some even move in an opposite direction. The movement rather resembles that of an amoeba, with one part of the body extending itself outward, then another, even while the main body stays back, until enough of the mass has shifted to move the entire body.”

So it is in the Delta of east Arkansas. There have been no sudden leaps forward following decades of economic decline-no giant automobile assembly plants, no ethanol boom, no discovery of oil. But thereare many talented people taking those “multiple small steps,” and their numbers appear to be increasing even as the region’s overall population declines.

A proposed $1.5 million project unveiled Saturday will highlight the lives of Phillips County residents, both black and white, during the Civil War.

Officials say visitors will learn a little-known part of the area’s history once the plans are completed in 2011.

They hope the project will entice Civil War buffs to visit the Phillips County town of Helena-West Helena and help increase tourism.

Webmaster Note: Michael Rowett serves as the Chairman of Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending (AAAPL) on behalf of Southern Good Faith Fund, an affiliate of Southern Bancorp.

Highlights
Payday loans often create more problems than they solve.
Banks, credit unions offer alternatives for tapping quick cash.
Credit counselors can rearrange finances to free up money.

The recession drags on, and many consumers facing financial emergencies are looking for quick cash. For years, payday lending — in which borrowers get small loans to tide them over until the next payday — has been a popular option.

Currently, there are about 22,000 storefront payday loan stores nationwide, according to the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C. On average, the industry makes $40 billion in loans and collects $6 billion in finance charges from borrowers each year.

But taking out a payday loan isn’t necessarily a smart financial move for the borrower.

Helena-West Helena to host events, outline black history exhibits.

Leaders will unveil a plan Saturday to showcase the city’s Civil War history.The plan, created by the firm Mudpuppy and Waterdog Inc., of Versailles, Ky., will include interpretations of 29 Civil War sites in Phillips County. Besides the plan’s unveiling, the city will host a number of events that are free and open to the general public.

KIPP Delta’s expansion plans supported by Walton Foundation

KIPP announces that Maisie Wright, one of 17 KIPP Fisher Fellows for 2009-10, will open a new public charter school in the Arkansas Delta. The Fisher Fellowship, which prepares aspiring principals to open and run new KIPP schools, is a yearlong leadership-training program that begins this month with a summer Institute at New York University. KIPP Delta is also announcing an opportunity to three Delta communities to sponsor this new KIPP school.

There will be an introduction of the Helena-West Helena Civil War research and implementation plan Saturday July 19th from 9am – 5pm.

The opening ceremony will start at 9am on the future site of Freedom Park on South Biscoe St. in Downtown Helena.

July 7, 2009

Civil War Interpretation Plan to be Introduced; Civil War Activities Planned Throughout the Day

“Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.” Walt Whitman

In early 1861, the United States began falling apart. Many point the finger of blame toward slavery; others believe states’ rights to be the impetus. Regardless the catalyst, the next four years would be burdened with strife, death, discord, and controversy. With an estimated 600,000 men losing their lives, the four-year episode marks the deadliest period in the history of the United States.

More Arkansans who are finding it tougher to make ends meet than most could get the help they need thanks to the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

WRF recently awarded $125,000 to Southern Good Faith Fund (SGFF), an affiliate of Southern Bancorp, for a program aimed at helping low-income Arkansans.

Over the last decade, career pathways has emerged as a strategy to increase access to postsecondary training and education as well as improve educational attainment for low-income and low-skill adults. Defined as a framework, career pathways are “a series of connected education and training programs and support services that enable individuals to secure employment within a specific industry or occupational sector, and to advance over time to successively higher levels of education and employment in that sector.”1 Blending multiple elements that range from redesigning curricula and programs that lead to an industry-recognized credential to aligning the various missions of a community college and providing case management and wrap-around support services, career pathways are an important vehicle for the economic advancement of adults living at the economic margins.