Two of the most unlikely places in rural America to find economic success are the Iron Range of Minnesota and south Arkansas. But there it is – and community colleges are at the center of the action.

POPLAR GROVE — The new sweet-potato storage and distribution facility here will soon be identified with a sign for “Arkansas Delta Yams,” manager Cindy Neal said. Although sweet potatoes and yams are two unrelated plants, many U.S. sweet potatoes are marketed as “yams.”

U.S. Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln have announced that $250,000 in federal funds for Save the Children, a juvenile delinquency prevention program for the Helena-West Helena area, has passed the senate and is on the way to a joint Senate-House committee. The committee will negotiate differences between the two respective bills and produce a final conference report that Pryor says will be approved.

…They are encouraging young people to make a commitment to help reverse the negative trends affecting kids in communities throughout the nation, and to join Clubs nationwide, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Phillips County, in their mission of changing and saving young lives…

Gov. Mike Beebe has appointed Michael Boone of Helena-West Helena to the Board of Review. Boone replaces Norith Eillison.
His appointment expires Jan. 14, 2011.

Muhammad Yunus was recognized a year ago with the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with microlending to the beggars of his native Bangladesh.

Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, microbanker Muhammad Yunus, said trusting impoverished women with “enormous” sums like $35-$40 dollars has created generational change in his native Bangladesh.

Since the consolidation of Helena and West Helena on Jan.1, 2006, the newly formed city of Helena-West Helena has suffered varying degrees of consolidation problems.

Southern Good Faith Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the Southern Bancorp. Since 1988 it has worked to increase the incomes and assets of low-income and low-skilled residents of rural Arkansas and Mississippi. This region is one of the poorest areas in the United States and grapples with high unemployment and low wages. Combined with low education levels, residents are either unemployed or in dead-end jobs.

Southern Bancorp of Arkadelphia is among 10 community development financial institutions that are semifinalists for $8.25 million in grants and awards under a program offered by the Opportunity Finance Network.