DRA Announces Funding Available for 2025 Community Infrastructure Fund

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 7, 2025

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Arlicia Jordan

601-660-1218

ajordan@dra.gov

DRA Announces Funding Available for 2025 Community Infrastructure Fund

Clarksdale, Miss. – The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) has announced funding availability for the 2025 Community Infrastructure Fund (CIF), which supports economic and community development needs throughout the Mississippi River Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions. 

Funding is now available to address basic public infrastructure and transportation infrastructure, as well as flood-control issues for communities within DRA’s eight-state service area. Awards will range from $500,000 to $2 million, with grant applications being reviewed on an annual rolling cycle. Funding for this program was made possible, in part, by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Joe Biden — a key part of his Investing in America agenda to grow local economies from the middle out and bottom up and to create more resilient and healthier communities across the country. 

“The Community Infrastructure Fund is one of DRA’s most unique tools that allows us to expand and invest in the resiliency of the region’s public infrastructure,” said Dr. Corey Wiggins, Federal Co-Chairman. “These investments will not only improve access to infrastructure but will also help improve residents’ quality of life and increase economic opportunities in some of the most persistently impoverished areas of the country.” 

In 2024, DRA invested nearly $33 million in 34 projects through the Community Infrastructure Fund.

For more information about funding availability for the Community Infrastructure fund, visit www.dra.gov.  For questions about the program, email sedap.cif@dra.gov. 

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About the Delta Regional Authority

The DRA was established in 2000 as a formal framework for joint federal-state collaboration to promote and encourage the economic development of the lower Mississippi River and Alabama Black Belt regions. To fulfill this purpose, DRA invests in projects supporting transportation infrastructure, basic public infrastructure, workforce training, and business development. DRA’s region encompasses 252 counties and parishes in parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.