WRI Partners to Launch Uncommon Communities Program in Arkansas

The Uncommon Communities program will take place in five Arkansas counties: (clockwise from top left) Pope, Van Buren, Conway, Perry, and Yell.

(Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected. See the end of the article for details.)

Five counties in Arkansas will benefit from an economic development initiative led by the University of Arkansas Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, the UA Cooperative Extension Service and Sandy and Vaughn Gresham of Oxford, Mississippi.

The Uncommon Communities program will benefit the following counties: Conway, Perry, Pope, Van Buren and Yell.

The Cooperative Extension Service’s Breakthrough Solutions program and the Grishams’ Extraordinary Communities program will work with WRI and community leaders to implement the program.

According to a news release, Uncommon Communities will serve as a community and economic development initiative that marries the community development methodology of Vaughn Grisham, professor emeritus of sociology and founding director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi and considered an expert in the field, with the award-winning Breakthrough Solutions partnership, under the direction of Mark Peterson at the UA.

The initiative will produce a group of community leaders who are equipped to “assess, plan, visualize and mobilize citizenry to work together in the areas of economic development, education and workforce development, as well as quality of life and place,” according to the release.

“Winthrop Rockefeller spent a great deal of time, money and energy helping rural communities in Arkansas,” said Marta Loyd, WRI executive director, in the release. “For us, the Uncommon Communities program is inspired by his work.”

Loyd said Uncommon Communities will seek to enhance similar programs in the state.

According to WRI, all counties participating in the program’s pilot year are rural with poverty rates between 17 percent and 23 percent; cumulatively lost 1,249 jobs between 2007 and 2013; and have unemployment rates that are 109 percent of the state average.

The Uncommon Communities model is designed to be scalable and replicable and will continue statewide after a two-year pilot, the release said.

“I think we’ve gathered just the right group to empower these communities,” Vaughn Grisham said. “These counties truly are uncommon in that they possess a great deal of potential. We look forward to helping them harness that potential.”

The program’s structure will include seminars held at WRI on Petit Jean Mountain for representatives from each county participating in the program. The seminars will be held every other month for the first year, with the first one occurring Friday, Aug. 28, and Saturday, Aug. 29.

Certain keynote addresses at each seminar will be open to the public free of charge. For more information on the keynote addresses, visit RockefellerInstitute.org/Uncommon.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the program is launching in other states, but it is taking place only in Arkansas.