Karen Minkel
Karen Minkel highlighted the work the Walton Family Foundation is doing in the Delta and northwest Arkansas during a speech Tuesday at the Rotary Club of Little Rock.
Minkel, the director of the foundation’s Home Region Program, has been at the foundation about four years. She said that from now through 2020, the organization plans to invest $302 million in the program.
The goal of the initiative is to improve the quality of life for people in northwest Arkansas and in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta.
One way the foundation is working to accomplish the goal is by focusing on after school programming, she said.
According to Minkel, the After School Alliance reported that 39 percent of children in rural areas would enroll in after school programs if they were available.
The Home Region Program is working with the Boys and Girls Club in Phillips County, which has seen almost 100 new children participating this fall compared to last year, she said.
The program also aims to get students into college through the College Initiative. So far, 100 percent of high school juniors and seniors who have participated have been accepted into college and each received an average $38,000 in financial aid, she said.
The Home Region Program doesn’t just work to improve quality of life through education. Minkel said it also targets job creation at places like the Phillips County Port Authority, where the program partnered with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
In northwest Arkansas, the program also works for educational progress. Minkel said that what ties the goals of the program together is “accessibility.”
“Accessibility for all is an overarching theme whether we’re talking about bike trails, college or [Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art],” Minkel said, referring to the Bentonville art museum founded by Alice Walton.
The Walton Family Foundation wants to provide exposure to the arts to people of all background and income levels, she said.
One way its doing that is through Circus Sites, a program that Minkel said brings together the community to enjoy an art form.
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