Blytheville Named One Of Ten Rural IMPACT Communities

The city of Blytheville has been named as one of 10 communities in the United States to participate in a federal program to help combat rural child poverty, the White House announced.

Blytheville will be part of the Rural IMPACT Demonstration, which will help create a learning community for coordinated health, human services and workforce development.

White House officials announced the plan earlier this year as part of work done by the White House Rural Council. The plan began to move ahead in August, officials said.

“In August, HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) announced a new demonstration project, Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children to Thrive (IMPACT), to help communities adopt a two-generation approach to addressing the needs of both vulnerable children and their parents, with the goal of increasing parents’ employment and education and improving the health and well-being of their children and families,” officials said in a media release.

“Often, programs are structured to serve either adults or children, rather than focusing on the entire family to improve outcomes. The Rural IMPACT Demonstration will help communities adopt a comprehensive, whole-family framework for addressing child poverty, such as through facilitating physical colocation of services, universal “no wrong door” intake, referral networks, shared measurement systems, and use of technology to deliver services,” the White House release said.

The 10 cities to participate in the program are:

• Berea (KY), Partners for Education at Berea College (Serving Knox County, KY)
• Blanding (UT), The San Juan Foundation (Serving San Juan County, UT)
• Blytheville (AR), Mississippi County, Arkansas Economic Opportunity Commission, Inc. (Serving Mississippi County, AR)
• Hillsboro (OH), Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc. (Serving Highland County, OH)
• Hugo (OK), Little Dixie Community Action Agency, Inc. (Serving Choctaw, McCurtain and Pushmataha Counties)
• Jackson (MS), Friends of Children of Mississippi, Inc. (Serving Issaquena, Sharkey and Humphreys Counties, MS)
• Machias (ME), Community Caring Collaborative (Serving Washington County, ME)
• Marshalltown (IA), Mid‐Iowa Community Action, Inc. (Serving Marshalltown, IA)
• Oakland (MD), Garrett County Community Action Committee and the Allegany Human Resources Commission (Serving Garrett and Allegany Counties, MD)
• White Earth (MN), White Earth Reservation Tribal Council (Serving Mahnomen County and portions of Clearwater and Becker Counties)