By ARCHIEMOUNTAIN
NEWPORT — The Newport Sunshine Initiative—Revitalizing the Greater Newport Area Economy, got some heavy-duty help from some friends in Mississippi and representatives of two Federal departments out of Washington at meetings on July 27th.
John Davis, Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services spoke at one of the meetings along with Dr. Nancy New, executive director of Mississippi Community Education Center and Christi Webb, Executive Director of Family Resource Center of North Mississippi.
The trio focused on a very successful program, Families First, the combined efforts of two non-profit community-based organizations.
“Through its Generation Plus approach, the Mississippi Department of Human Services is working toward building a multi-generational, collaborative approach that addresses the barriers associated with poverty and an intentional focus on working with the family as a whole,” Davis told the gathering
“In partnership with Families First for Mississippi, county offices throughout Mississippi are better equipped to support the ‘whole family’ through parenting education, parenting skills training, youth development programs, Healthy Teens for A Better Mississippi as well as many other specific human services needs within the family being served,” he said.
Prior to the meeting, Jay Lucas, who heads the Newport Sunshine Initiative, said the group was delighted to be hosting the visitors to focus on the issue of revitalizing the local economy.
Wendell Davis, the current SBA Regional Administrator for New England, along with key members of his team, including Greta Johansson, New Hampshire District Director for the SBA met with area business leaders and interested citizens throughout the day.
Their objective was to understand the needs of the area’s economy and identify opportunities for the SBA to be a helpful partner in accelerating business growth in Newport and surrounding communities.
In addition, the group was also joined by David Tille, New Regional Administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The group also participated in a tour of the Career and Technical Education Center at Newport High School hosted by SAU 43 Superintendent of Schools Cindy Gallagher.
“USDA and SBA have a great working relationship and this agreement only strengthens our partnership and common goal to assist our rural small business communities in accessing programs that will help them thrive,” said Ben Doyle, from the USDA.
In his introduction message, Lucas said the Sunshine Initiative is to revitalize Newport.
“About two-thirds of students never go on to further education,” he reported. He said the Newport group started with 12 people and has grown to between 70 and 75. “When you get a group together you can make a lot of progress,” he said.
“One of the things that is very important is to bring people together, workers to build infrastructure in Families First,” Dr. New said.
“We want to find out what the needs are and set up individual training. We customize services and we know money will always be a challenge,” she continued.
“A lot of thing we put together are working but there is a lot of work to do with the dropout rate. We don’t just want to graduate them but get them prepared for community college,” she added.
“What you do with what you’ve been given defines you,” New concluded.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.