Karen Minkel highlighted the Home Region Program and the work the Walton Family Foundation is doing in the Delta region and northwest Arkansas when she spoke at the Little Rock Rotary Club Tuesday.
Minkel is the director of the Home Region Program and has been at the foundation about four years. She said that from now through 202, the organization plans to invest $302 million in the Home Region Program.
The idea behind the initiative is to improve the quality of life for people in northwest Arkansas and in the Arkansas and Mississippi Delta region.
One of the key ways the foundation is working to accomplish this is by focusing on after school programming.
According to Minkel, the After School Alliance reported that 39 percent of kids in rural areas would enroll in after school programs if they were available.
One example of an activity the Home Region Program is working with is the Boys and Girls Club in Phillips County, where Minkel said they have had almost 100 new kids participating this fall compared to last year.
The Home Region Program also targets getting students into college through The College Initiative. So far, 100 percent of the high school juniors and seniors who have participated have been accepted into college and each received an average $38,000 in financial aid.
The Home Region Program does not just work to improve quality of life through education — Minkel said they target job creation and have recently done so at the Phillips County Port Authority where they partnered with the AEDC.
In northwest Arkansas, they also work for educational progress but Minkel said what ties the goals of the program all together is “accessibility.”
“Accessibility for all is an overarching theme whether we’re talking about bike trails, college or Crystal Bridges,” Minkel said.
The Walton Family Foundation wants the provide exposure to the arts to individuals of all background and income levels.
One way they are doing that is through Circus Sites, a program that Minkel said brings together the community to enjoy an art form.
The organization is also encouraging persons of all ethnicities and income levels to check out Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, which is free to visit.
Minkel said that in 2012, 30 percent of Hispanics surveyed had visited the museum and in 2015, 62 percent of Hispanics surveyed had visited the museum, showing good progress.
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