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- Louisiana Delta Initiative to host best practices forum Aug. 4
Mary Ann Van Osdell, Barnes, James
News Release Distributed 07/27/09
Community leaders and other individuals will have an opportunity during an Aug. 4 forum in Vidalia to hear how leaders in Helena-West Helena, Ark., worked to bring those two cities together.
Presented by the Louisiana Delta Initiative, the forum will feature Joe Black, vice president of Southern Financial Partners, of Helena-West Helena, Ark., who will speak on “Building Regional Communities: Lessons Learned from the Helena-West Helena, Ark. Case.”
The forum will be held from noon to 1 p.m. at the Vidalia Conference and Convention Center.
The meeting on regional best practices will present organization, management and governance principles that have been used successfully in regional economic development projects, especially those aimed at reducing regional poverty, said Dr. James Barnes, director of the LSU AgCenter's Delta Rural Development Center.
The Louisiana Delta Initiative is a regional network of community and economic development organizations working in collaboration to improve the economic conditions in the 12-parish Northeast Louisiana Delta region. Its focus is on improving jobs, entrepreneurship, education, health care and infrastructure, Barnes said.
Learning from other community leaders who have implemented innovative approaches to reducing regional poverty is a necessary step to advance the mission of the Louisiana Delta Initiative, he added.
Mary Ann Van Osdell
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture