Members of the Arkansas Northeastern College Board of Trustees gathered for their regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, where they heard plans regarding the establishment of a Blytheville Youth Development Initiative. ANC has requested a $217,000 water credit from the city of Blytheville for a fire suppression well built for the new Center for Allied Technologies building — money that could be used for the program.
The Arkansas Northeastern College recently hosted two meetings of youth service providers after several individuals, including Blytheville Mayor James Sanders, expressed the idea that Blytheville, as a community, should do more to engage children and their futures in order to combat crime and poverty. Among the attendees at these two meetings were Mayor Sanders, Mississippi County Judge John Nelson, State Senator Dave Wallace, and State Representative Monte Hodges, as well as representatives of area ministries who provide food and activities to large numbers of children, the Blytheville Youth Football League, and Odyssey of the Minds, among others.
The group identified the establishment of neighborhood learning hubs as an appealing possibility for the community. These hubs would be designed to build life-skills competencies that are needed for individuals to become successful adults, as well as offering services that promote the importance of education and lifelong learning, interpersonal/intercultural communication and conflict resolution, career development, and the value of a healthy work ethic. This developmental and social competencies curriculum, potentially deliverable by the College, could be woven around and/or supplement recreational and nutritional efforts already being delivered by local youth service providers.
As a direct consequence of her research, professional development work, and national contacts made, Dr. Blanche Hunt, ANC Associate Vice President for Community Relations, already has access to strategies and materials used successfully in other parts of the United States to work with youth in generational poverty that could be marshalled for this effort. These curriculum sources, although value-based, do not advance any particular religion. Several local churches providing youth services already have sufficient facilities serving different geographical sections of Blytheville to allow such a partnership without the need for investment in a physical facility. The Blytheville Youth Development Initiative would basically serve to increase and coordinate existing services. As a result, the investment needed to launch and fund a three-year Youth Development program would involve human resource costs to plan and deliver the life-skills curriculum and related activities, including coordinating activities among the youth service provider partners, and to cover the costs of consumables for activities.
A three-year timespan was recommended to allow for sufficient data to be gathered for the purpose of attracting outside grants which search for successful generational poverty initiatives with a track record to fund. Such resources would be strategically sought to extend the life of the project into the future. At the second youth service providers meeting, ANC President Dr. James Shemwell raised the possibility of the reimbursement requested by the College from the City of Blytheville for the underground well system for the Center for Allied Technologies being used as seed money to help launch the discussed youth development initiative. The idea met with enthusiastic support from those in attendance.
In March 2019, the City of Blytheville Utilities Committee moved and seconded a recommendation to the City Finance Committee to approve a proposal to purchase a conveyance of the underground well system from the College in exchange for one or more cash payments. The proposal then moved to the Finance Committee where it has remained since, awaiting a second to the motion to move the recommendation to the full City Council for its consideration. The well system and related instrumentation, which cost $217,000, would be conveyed to the City of Blytheville in exchange for cash, with the separate well-house structure housing the well remaining property of the College.
The ANC Board of Trustees voted to set aside the proposed reimbursement from the City of Blytheville as a Restricted Fund to be invested in the proposed youth development initiative. Because a three-year budget estimate to properly fund the youth development initiative is $300,000 ($100,000 budget annually), the Board further voted that ANC provide an additional investment of $83,000 ($27,667 annually) over three years in the Youth Development Restricted Fund provided that the City reimburses the $217,000 to the College for the well. None of the funds invested in the Blytheville Youth Development Restricted Fund would be paid to any project partners. All funds would be expended upon College personnel costs and consumables for youth activities to augment what existing youth providers do already.
ANC Board of Trustee Secretary, Curtis Walker, Jr., touted the idea as a much-needed and reasonable proposal. “It just makes too much sense. The fact the our college understands the need and is willing to do this is wonderful.”
Board of Trustee member Dr. Ann Abraham echoed Walker’s praise for the proposed initiative and quoted Frederick Douglass when she added, “ It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Dr. James Shemwell, ANC President, stated, “The citizens of Blytheville are best served if ANC spends College resources being this community’s College, not serving as its utility company. Hopefully, the College’s offer will be received by the City as an opportunity to all come together as partners to directly reinvest these utility dollars into an initiative designed to improve Blytheville’s future.”
Shemwell continued, “County Judge John Nelson stated in our recent meetings that our county’s challenges with poverty cannot be fixed in a year or two, it is a generational problem that will take a generation to repair. Each year that we fail to start the process pushes a brighter future with less crime, better school performance, and higher property values another 15 to 20 years down the road. We need to start the clock now toward that better future.”
In other news, the Board approved new hires for ANC as follows:
Kaci Bell , Coordinator for ANC Osceola Center
Megan Buchanan, Adult Education Interventionist (grant-funded)
Brent Carroll, Welding Instructor
Emily Crosskno, Early College Specialists
Richard Dean, Industrial Technology Instructor (grant-funded)
Brandi George, Perkins Coordinator (grant funded)
Robilyn Key, Career Coach (grand funded)
Livinia Miller, Administrative Specialist I, Osceola Center
Dianne Mille, Practical Nursing Instructor
James Odom, Associate Dean, Management Information Technology Services
Ricky Stanfield, Criminal Justice Instructor
Fred Taylor, Aviation Instructor
Raymond Trammell, Jr., Criminal Justice Instructor
Shawn Warren, Public Safety Security Officer
Carleigh Woods, Administrative Specialist II, Student Services
The Board approved the acceptance of several grants. Arkansas Northeastern College is a member of a three-college consortium, created for the purpose of implementing the annual Carl Perkins Grant. The College has been notified that the 2018-19 funding amount for the consortium is $136,140, and that ANC’s share of this award is $54,000. This grant is designed for the purpose of improving Career and Technical Education. ANC plans to use the 2018-19 funding to support activities that will update CTE equipment, provide professional development for faculty/staff and incentivize students’ credential attainments.
The Board approved the budget for ANC;s Carl Perkins grant award which is designed to strengthening Career and Technical Education with a focus on program improvement, flexibility, data and accountability. ANC will use the 2019-2020 grant award to fund a Perkins Program Specialists to help develop a four-year plan for the grant. The specialist will work with area public schools, businesses and industry to ensure that ANC CTE programs meet the workforce needs of the region and state.
The Board approved the acceptance of the federal TRiO Student Support Services grant in the amount of $323,779 and the federal TRiO Talent Search Grant in the amount of $572,438.
Updates were provided regarding ANC’s ongoing Quality Initiative project and strategic planning. The College continues to plan for its future and the focus of ANC Quality initiative includes leadership development and the creation of a strategic plan. The Higher Learning Commission, which is the accrediting agency for the College, Approved ANC’s proposal for the Quality Initiative.