Contact: Maridith Geuder
It's a small Mississippi town whose needs can serve as a social work primer.
Jonestown, a community of 1,400 located in the heart of the North Mississippi Delta, daily struggles with such issues as high teen pregnancy and steep high school dropout rates. For these and other reasons, the Coahoma County town has had limited economic prospects.
Recently, however, a group of Mississippi State faculty members and representatives of the university's research and service units banded together to help Jonestown find new directions. Among the efforts:
--Social work teachers and students are helping lay plans for long-term social work services;
--John C. Stennis Institute of Government researchers are developing ways to improve municipal functions and joining in a partnership with nearby Coahoma Community College to promote job-training programs;
--Professionals with the School of Architecture's Small Town Center are proposing ways to transform an abandoned elementary school into a multipurpose community center; and
--MSU Extension Service specialists are working to turn a town bayou into a nature trail. For first-term Mayor Joe Phillips, the combined efforts by MSU, CCC and town residents mean one thing: hope for the future.
"This support is opening avenues that will offer positive results for Jonestown," he said. "I'm confident that we now have the ability to reach our goals for a better quality of life."
He added: "I hope that our community can serve as a model for other communities."
It was nearly three years ago when MSU social work professors Carolyn Bryant and Linda Southward first began working to make a difference in the rural community. They developed a plan to utilize the energy of social work majors for a town intervention effort.
"When we first visited, I was struck that there were no social work services," Bryant recalled recently.
With community input, Bryant developed a comprehensive building and improvement project that resulted in the town's acquisition of an old school. She also organized a community festival and a summer day camp.
The now-annual camp includes general sessions on reading, drama and cooking, as well as specific teen issues of drug-use prevention, sexual abstinence and conflict resolution. Though the town already was receiving the benefits of programs developed by Habitat for Humanity and the Catholic Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary, Bryant said she believed Jonestown could benefit additionally from a comprehensive social services program.
"Our focus is developing collaborative interactions with other communities and agencies to establish services such as daycare and literacy programs," Bryant said.
"Dr. Bryant laid the groundwork," said Stennis Institute director Marty Wiseman in assessing the ever-evolving cooperative projects.
When Mayor Phillips invited suggestions for improving municipal operations, Wiseman and other institute members immediately began seeking resources that could help Jonestown help itself. Together with Coahoma Community College, they organized a strategic planning retreat for community officials and leaders.
Putting a vacant school building to use was among the first identified needs, Wiseman said. "We invited the School of Architecture's Small Town Center to become involved, and a senior design class took on Jonestown as a project," he said, adding that a grant from the Phil Hardin Foundation in Meridian supported a renovation study.
"The proposed facility would provide a focus for community activities and be a center for daycare, educational activities and city government," said assistant architecture professor John Poros. "It would become a significant empowerment resource for the community."
Architecture students proposed a flexible facility that could provide round-the-clock daycare for single parents who work in nearby Tunica, as well as space for other social and educational activities identified by the community.
"This has been a wonderful collaboration between Mississippi State, Coahoma Community College and the citizens of Jonestown," Wiseman said. "All of us want to see the town's dreams become a reality."