Center on Community Philanthropy
PRESENTS
ECI Effort in Blytheville, Arkansas
What If WE Really Reduced Poverty in OUR Community?
ECI is an acronym for Emerging Communities Initiative. This will be an 18 month initiative, specific to Blytheville. Over this period of time, the answers and solutions to poverty will EMERGE from the COMMUNITY of Blytheville. Real People - Real Important Issues - Real Impact.
Please call or email Tamika Jenkins for updates information.
Phone: 870.532.6084
Email: tej26@sbcglobal.net
The coach for this project will be Ken Hubbell of 'Ken Hubbell and Associates' A graduate assistant at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will occasionally attend a session also.
More information can be found in the attachments and on the website link below.
*Documents may load slowly - please be patient
2009
September Agenda September Exploration
October Agenda October Conversation Notes Blytheville Social-Eco System Map
November Agenda Draft Economic Data, November Notes November Conversation Notes
2010
January Agenda January Meeting
March Agenda Preliminary Blytheville Findings and Perspectives
May, World Cafe - Building a better Blytheville 2030, what do you think of the city below?
Late in spring of 2010, ECI hosted a Community Vision event at the college. Volunteers discussed and drew out their picture of Blytheville 2030, then we edited these ideas, along with emerging concepts from ECI dialogues, into a draft narrative Vision.
Welcome to Blytheville, the natural center of the natural state. A town of 75,000 on a steady growth curve, this area is going places. A focus on nature, innovation, and energy propelled this corner of Arkansas into the ranks of the most livable and healthy places. Here people working together generated a range of good jobs and great schools in a clean community.
The “new Blytheville” was built around a world-class steel and fabrication center alongside the mid-south’s premiere clean energy corridor. Blytheville is the place for advanced wind, water, and plant technologies which produce sustainable power, nutritious foods, and solutions for rural development that are known the world over. Our air, road, rail, broadband, and water infrastructure support a city that is connected commercially to the whole globe.
This rapid development transformed the public appetites for healthy foods, lifestyles, and community facilities and a connected transit system links people of all ages and incomes to a community of opportunities. Local leaders secured partnerships with Memphis and Little Rock medical and health institutions to create Blytheville branches of the Cancer Center and a medical school campus affiliated with Arkansas Northeastern. The new focus on “nature” has many smaller spin-offs: community gardens, farmers markets and greenhouses powered by solar and wind provide locally-grown foods, competitive options for small businesses. Because there is so much opportunity and promise here, the city voted for youth entrepreneur programs and business incubators so youth will be leaders in a future where ideas, creativity, and business savvy are highly valued.
The city has so much to offer that the people love to live here. The community is proud of the huge library where the love of kids and learning created a place to explore the world of ideas. Our schools are new and feature the best teachers, labs, classrooms, and arts. Public parks, trails, water and extensive recreational parks and youth programs provide year-round outdoor action and community. This significant public-private investment also led to the development of a small zoo, huge malls with full parking lots, a skate-swim complex, and a large nature preserve. Such community building over the last two decades and a consistent source of good job opportunities succeeded in dramatically reducing crime, obesity, teen pregnancy, dropouts, poor literacy, and distressed housing—the old hallmarks of poverty that had restrained the city’s promise.
August Agenda / Community Leaders Informational
ECI Blytheville Discovery Report - A Strategic Assessment of the State of Poverty in Blytheville & A Roadmap to Increasing Opportunity
September Findings / Strategic Directions for Blytheville and Key Issues
October Findings / September Meeting Results
November ECI Transition Meeting
Started off with 6 goals around 1 vision
After prioritizing ended up with 3 goals
**For a clearer copy of the pictures above, please contact Tamika at tej26@sbcglobal.net
2011
The Blytheville ECI Team started the year contemplating what to do with all the information that had been gathered. After two productive meetings in June and July, the team decided to invest in the future of Blytheville, by creating a Youth Network!
The Blytheville ECI Team desires any program with a youth focus to be apart of this Youth Network, which is still in its planning stages. The next meeting will be Thursday, November 17, 2011 at the MCAEOC Main Office 1400 North Division in Blytheville, AR. YOU are welcome to attend.
September Agenda September Notes
This project is also sponsored by the
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation www.wrfoundation.org
