Jul 20, 2010 | News
As a community development bank, Southern Bancorp is chartered to change lives for the better.
Few community banks can claim to have been started by a future first lady. Perhaps equally few have initial investors who agreed to give up financial returns in exchange for social returns.
Southern Bancorp is an unusual institution, a community development bank with a hybrid model of providing traditional banking services while pursuing the higher civic goal of spurring economic development in low-to-moderate-income areas.
Jul 15, 2010 | News
Eco in practice
Architect Doug Thornton’s office building in Hernando itself represents a recycling project: It was built in the 1950s by the Baptist Association.
Old wood was put in a chipper for landscaping or given to farmers for animal shelters. All the old fixtures, appliances, plumbing, doors and windows were donated to Habitat for Humanity. Much of the original brick was left on; recycled copper is used for a countertop.
The building is insulated with soy-based spray foam and the sound batts are made from recycled jeans. All interior paint is 98 percent light-reflective; there are bamboo and cork floors. There’s a “sunlight chimney” to admit light and ventilation, and the exit signs use no electricity.
Jul 7, 2010 | News
Employees of Southern Bancorp recently gave savings lessons to elementary students as part of the American Bankers Association Education foundation’s Teach Children to Save Program.
Southern employees joined thousands of bankers across the country that traded in their balance sheets for blackboards to help fill the need for financial education.
Jul 2, 2010 | News
HERNANDO — Southern Bancorp executives and employees broke ground recently for the bank’s full-service LEED-certified branch in Hernando.
The branch at 790 Byhalia Road is scheduled to open in early 2011.
Southern currently has two loan production offices in DeSoto County — one in Hernando and the other in Southaven.
Jul 1, 2010 | News
Blytheville, AR (July 1, 2010) Linda O’Guin, Executive Director of Westminster Village of the Mid-South, an affordable, active retirement community, will announce the receipt of a $25,000 grant from the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation to purchase a handicapped-accessible mini-bus, which will enable Westminster to establish a transportation program for residents that will improve access to health care, shopping and community events for senior residents, at the July celebration for Village residents, scheduled for 5 p.m. today, Thursday, July 1.
Jun 30, 2010 | News
BLYTHEVILLE, Ark., June 30, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Theresa Metcalf has been telling everyone about her new home, and the grant program that helped her get into the home.
Ms. Metcalf, a 41-year-old single mother of six, heard about the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas’s (FHLB Dallas’s) Homebuyer Equity Leverage Partnership (HELP) program through her job as a substitute teacher for a Head-Start program in Blytheville, Arkansas.
Jun 29, 2010 | News
Three weeks ago, we posted profiles of 25 social ventures on this blog and asked readers to vote for the one they felt held the most promise. The profiles were part of our second annual round-up of businesses from across the country that aim to both turn a profit and do social good.
Now, nearly 4,500 votes later, the results are in.
Jun 16, 2010 | News
Arkadelphia, Ark. —
Phil Baldwin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Bancorp, Inc., announced that Dominik Mjartan has been promoted to Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Communications.
Jun 15, 2010 | News
…In addition, a recent study by BusinessWeek featured 28 growing social enterprises that are worth keeping on your radar screen for future responsible job opportunities as well as potential companies to buy products from. These social enterprises really reinforce the notion that businesses can do well whiled doing good in any industry and wherever you are located! Let’s review these organizations by industry..
Southern Bancorp – This bank with operations in Arkansas and Mississippi aims at providing banking services to communities that other bank desert. Furthermore, Southern aims at reducing poverty and unemployment in rural areas, as well as increasing the high school graduation rate of the communities they serve.
Jun 10, 2010 | News
Just as electric bills start to increase because of the summer heat, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. customers will see a reduction in rates – a whopping 23-percent reduction from last summer.
The lower rate will result in a $24 savings on the typical Entergy Arkansas residential customer bill, which is for 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The rate decrease is in response to lower fuel costs and projections through the end of 2010. A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours will pay $85.91 starting in July, about what customers were paying in July of 1986.
