Eight communities across the Delta region will participate in a year-long intensive as part of Delta Regional Authority’s new capacity-building program
Clarksdale, MS – The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) has announced the Delta Revitalization through Innovation, Vision, and Equity (DRIVE) Pilot program in partnership with the University of Memphis (UofM) Division of Research and Innovation. The Pilot program was created to help distressed and underserved communities build capacity and drive community-centered economic growth in the Mississippi River Delta region. As identified in DRA’s Regional Development Plan IV, the DRIVE Pilot program is a fundamental component of DRA’s efforts to enhance sustainable and inclusive local placemaking and community capacity across its eight-state region.
The DRIVE Pilot program is part of the Delta Regional Authority’s efforts to advance equity for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty,” said Federal Co-Chairman, Dr. Corey Wiggins. “It is our intent that this program will create support mechanisms and increase the economic development capacity for small, rural communities in our region.”
Through an intensive year-long, cohort-based program, the DRIVE pilot program will bring together eight small towns to increase local capacity in economic and workforce development that will support long-term economic opportunity in rural communities. The participating towns include Eudora, Arkansas; Helena-West Helena, Arkansas; Osceola, Arkansas; Hazlehurst, Mississippi; Port Gibson, Mississippi; Tunica, Mississippi; Brownsville, Tennessee; and Whiteville, Tennessee.
Additional information about the DRIVE Pilot program is available at DRIVE | University of Memphis DRIVE (drivequity.org).
