Comprehensive Community Strategic Planning to Revitalize the Rural South - Southern Bancorp - Arkansas

Southern Bancorp has the mission to revitalize struggling rural communities in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta. For years, Southern Bancorp invested millions of dollars to mitigate poverty in these communities, but the effort failed to have a significant impact on reducing poverty. Southern’s innovative strategy is to build long-term partnerships with residents, local leaders, the business community, nonprofits, and other stakeholders to establish community goals, build capacity to achieve them, and maintain momentum until the goals are achieved and the community begins to turn around. As communities are reinvigorated by this approach, not only are their residents’ lives improved, but the communities become engines that drive revitalization in nearby towns. By making the bank the driver for comprehensive revitalization in struggling communities and Southern’s ability to leverage extensive financial and social capital to support revitalization efforts with a 20-year horizon rather than the typical short-term funding cycle.