Local leaders continue discussion on regionalism

Published 12:13 am Wednesday, August 5, 2009

VIDALIA — The second in a series of speakers on regionalism echoed a point made by the first speaker — economic development starts in the private sector.

Joe Black, vice president and director of programs for Southern Bancorp in Helena and West Helena, Ark., spoke to a group of business and elected officials from Natchez, Vidalia and Ferriday Tuesday.

The three area chambers of commerce invited Black to speak as a follow-up to a talk given by Ronnie Bryant, an economic developer in North Carolina.

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Black represents an area with a similar size and economy to that of the Miss-Lou.

Black’s company is a development bank holding company that owns several banks and funds a variety of projects aimed at developing the local community and economy.

The private sector, working alongside public entities, can turn a community around, Black said. But there has to be vision.

“If you want to try to create change, you have to create a common vision,” he said. “You can’t promote regional development if you don’t have a common vision of what regionalism is.”

Black’s organization has set 20-year goals of seeing a 50 percent reduction in the poverty, unemployment and dropout rates.

Black acknowledged that their goals were tough, but said they were needed.

“In the Delta, we need help in everything,” he said. “We have to address a number of issues. We had to fund business, improve schools, improve health care.

“You have to strategically deploy money to get the most bang for the buck.”

And you have to track your results, he said.

Southern Bancorp tracks what they call life changing improvements, sustainable life improvements and quality of life improvements.

The group has funded a school, helped start a Boys & Girls Club and provided money for business.

But they don’t expect change overnight, Black said.

“It’s unrealistic to think you can solve multi-generational poverty in two to three years. That’s asinine in my opinion.

“Start simple and work up. In many ways this is triage. It’s realizing that you’ve got limited resources.”

One of the first things his region did was tear down dilapidated properties, which showed area residents that something was changing, he said.

The meeting was sponsored by the Louisiana Delta Initiative.