2003 Annual Report Executive Summary
City of East Prairie Enterprise Community
Overview of the Impact of the 1994 East Prairie Enterprise Community on the Economy and Well-Being of Residents.
Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center, the Lead Entity of the East Prairie Enterprise Community, completed its 11th year working to improve the economic and physical well being for the 3,416 residents of East Prairie living in the East Prairie Enterprise Community. Three innovative new programs this year were unique in that Mississippi County is one of a very limited number of rural communities in the United States offering these programs. The first two programs were developed because of the repeat incidences of domestic violence involving the same perpetrator. The Batterer Intervention Program was designed to hold batterers accountable while breaking the cycle of abuse. The court mandates that the batterer attend 26 weeks of group sessions. Another project is the supervised visitation or supervised exchange program that provides for safe visitation between the non-custodial parent and the child when issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, or child abuse prevent unsupervised visitation from being safe. The supervised exchange program provides for monitored exchange of children between parents when the issues of domestic violence has made unsupervised exchange unsafe for the battered parent and children. A third new program for 2003 is Car Kids, an innovative entrepreneurial pilot project whereby youth ages 15 – 21 receive hands on training. In this program, funded by the Workforce Investment Board, Car Kids learn automotive vocabulary and are able to do routine service inspections and repairs. Cars are donated to the Center and once the youth have repaired and serviced the vehicles, the cars are then sold for a minimal fee to adult program participants who are either beginning workers or who live on a minimum wage. Adults purchasing the cars may access a $8,000 revolving loan fund, established by the United Methodist Women, Global Ministries.
Preschool youth and their parents continued to have an opportunity to create more learning opportunities for their youth through the Even Start educational program, a collaborative program with the East Prairie R#2 School District. In addition, 25 community youth benefited by a collaboration with the local school to provide an after school tutoring. This program is for students who were at risk of “falling through the cracks.” The Odyssey after-school program offers youth the opportunity to become true scholars. In another program collaboration between the Juvenile Court and the Center, 40 court-involved youth were taught good citizens skills. (Benchmark 4).
The Staff and the Board of Directors continue their forward-thinking approach to providing services to meet the needs of Enterprise Community residents by focusing on skills needed to be successful citizens, workers, and family members in the 21st Century. Literacy technical assistance is provided by a partnership with Missouri’s Literacy Investment for Tomorrow for the center’s youth programs, adult education, and children’s education center. Positive Patterns for Kids (PP4K) operates from the Whitaker Building for youth development activities. The new facility, adjacent to the Center and named the Whitaker Building in honor of the donor, was the site of a full-scale summer camp which served 650 area youth and included community service projects, field trips, and a nutritious daily lunch provided in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Health.
The community service program, a collaboration with the Thirty-third Judicial Circuit Court/Mississippi County Juvenile Court, serves court-involved youth by providing supervised service opportunities in addition to leadership and citizenship instruction and mentoring. The community service program was developed in response to the need to provide juvenile offenders with a structured environment in which to learn good citizenship. These youth completed the LifeSkills curriculum from Cornell University and completed restorative justice/confronting their victim. This very effective program served 147 youth and has a less than 5% recidivism rate
The economic downturn in the economy has negatively impacted the entire area. This is compounded by continued lower agricultural prices and the trend of moving factories out of the country. Mississippi County’s unemployment rate in December 2003, was 7.3 compared to the 4.8 rate for the State. This figure has remained within a 3-point range for the past several years. On a positive note, this discrepancy was less in 2003 than at the inception of the Enterprise Community grant designation. (Benchmark 14). Revolving loan funds have provided gap funding for a total of six businesses, three-startup business and three business retentions.
Activities, approved and funded by the Community Development Block grant program, USDA- Rural Development and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, will strengthen the city’s infrastructure. Residents are protected by a more efficient infrastructure including a new fire station a new water treatment plant and an upgraded sewer treatment system. Housing was positively impacted by the construction and selling of one dwelling and another house under construction for low-income residents and the implementation of a building skills program. The City of East Prairie Enterprise Community in partnership with Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center, Inc., lead entity for the enterprise community, received funding from the Missouri Department of Economic Development Community Development Block Grant Program for an Innovative Building Skills Training/Housing Construction program. The building skills program targets unemployed participants who have the goal of learning building skills. In addition, a new partnership with the Southeast Missouri Correctional Facility provided the opportunity to work with the building project. The City of East Prairie also benefited by the prisoner work program participants assisting the parks maintenance and water and sewer maintenance departments.
In 2003, the Enterprise Community’s technology infrastructure was enhanced and expanded by the addition of OdesseyWare educational software to the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center Computer Lab. Additionally, the Center’s fully operational information network provides full-time on-demand Internet access. The Computer Lab provided basic computer literacy instruction using the How to Master curriculum. This training tool, supported by the new educational OdesseyWare software, and coupled with classes taught by certified Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education instructors helped to prepare adults and youth for higher-paying entry level jobs, including in desktop computer support and information management. These technical tools provided great assistance to community residents in their ongoing efforts to become a model 21st century rural area.
The major marketing effort for economic development in the East Prairie Enterprise Community was to expand existing business and to attract new manufacturing, warehouse, distribution and retail businesses. (Benchmarks 10, 12, and 13). In 2003 one half of the vacant 60,000 square foot industrial building owned by the City of East Prairie and formally occupied by Jakel, Inc. was rented to Clyde Case III, who expanded his North Carolina warehousing and distribution operation to Missouri. Mr. Case is currently working with the city to secure a business to occupy the other 30,000 square foot portion of the building. During 2003 the City of East Prairie transferred title of 2 acres of property in the East Prairie Industrial Park to a computer manufacturing company. The company is in the process of constructing a 6,000 square foot building and has targeted summer of 2004 for manufacturing operations to begin. There was new activity in the retail sector in 2003. Several new antique businesses opened, the only theatre in the city, which was previously closed, was renovated and is now open to brisk business. Dollar General Store has elected to expand operations and has purchased property on Prairie Drive and has secured a building permit to build a larger store. The city is currently working with three business owners interested in expanding and/or renovating their business facilities utilizing the East Prairie Enterprise Community Development Corporation’s Revolving Loan Program.
In 2003, the St. John’s Bayou New Madrid Floodway project cleared a big hurdle in that they were granted Clean Water Certification by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. (Benchmark 15) Community residents are elated that the project will come to fruition.
Success in Leveraging and Obtaining Funds for Project. As a result of the Enterprise designation and with the support of partners, the community has acquired, since 1994, over $16,000,000 in additional funding to implement benchmark activities. Funds committed in the calendar year 2003 for designated projects include: Missouri Department of Economic Development Neighborhood Assistance Grant to Susanna Wesley, Inc. for Welfare to Work Program and Incentives for 2003 - $570,781. A U.S. Department of Justice (Safe Haven Supervised Visitation and Exchange and Batterer Intervention Services) grant in the amount of $255,736, which is in partnership with Susanna Wesley to provide services for the multi-year grant. The City of East Prairie was awarded a $300,000 Missouri CDBG Public Facility Grant to assist in the building of a new Nutrition Center for senior citizens. This infrastructure improvement will allow the Nutrition Center to expand to a new building and to serve more meals to the senior citizens of the East Prairie Enterprise Community. (Benchmark 14). The City of East Prairie received a grant in the amount of $54,914.00 from the U.S. Fire Administration for firefighter safety equipment. (Benchmark 14) The City of East Prairie was awarded a grant in the amount of $12,950.00 from USDA to purchase and install an emergency storm warning siren system. (Benchmark 14) In December of 2003, the City of East Prairie also received verbal confirmation of a grant in the amount of $135,000 from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is a pass through from the National Parks Service. This grant will allow the construction of a nature trail and planting of wildlife habitat and the purchase and installation of lighting to four baseball fields at the K. S. Simpkins Family Recreation Facility (Benchmark 5).
Missouri Division of Job Training through Service Delivery Area 13 Workforce Investment Board funded $84,360 to Susanna Wesley for employment support, job training, and job connections for East Prairie Enterprise Community adults and youth, Missouri Depart of Education – Adult Education and Literacy $100,008, Even Start $175,075; Missouri Depart of Public Safety, youth programming $257,243 and domestic violence support $95,438, Title V, US Dept. of Justice $163,544 as subcontractor of Miss. County for youth programs, Children’s Trust Fund youth programs $35,937; U.S. Dept. of Health-Missouri Department of Health youth food programs $103,312; Missouri Depart of Social Services domestic violence $89,187, and domestic violence Emergency Services grant to the City of East Prairie and contracted to Susanna Wesley in the amount of $12,449, adult programs $55,273; Missouri Office of States Court Administrators domestic violence programs $33,167, Missouri Community Service Com (AmeriCorp) $111,546, Private donors included; United Methodist Global Ministries $28,000; United Methodist Women and East Annual Conference $26,000 other churches and private individual donations - $34,000. US Dept. of Justice Safe Haven grant, $255,736 awarded and $10,270 spent in 2003.