The Mississippi Free Press is committed to fostering dialogue across race, ethnicity, economic status, political parties, gender and religious beliefs. MFP’s Solutions Circles help provide a platform for these conversations where Mississippians can not only address challenges but also imagine solutions. The newsroom hosted virtual Solutions Circles during the pandemic and has since convened in-person circles series in Jackson (Central Mississippi), Lexington (Delta) and Biloxi (Gulf Coast).

MFP convened a Greenwood Solutions Circle in Greenwood, Mississippi, on Dec. 2, 2025, when more than a dozen people gathered at the Greenwood Community Center. The attendees discussed challenges such as gun violence, negative social interactions and lack of economic development. 

This was the second time MFP visited Greenwood for a Solutions Circle. The first was a visit to St. John’s Methodist Church on Oct. 21, 2025, which you can read about here and here.

If you’d like to hear more about Mississippi Free Press’s Solutions Circles, sign up at http://mfp.ms/circlesinterest.

Circle 1: Gun Violence

Problems

  • Community doesn’t know how to resolve conflict
    • Also don’t know when to walk away
  • Responses to untreated trauma
  • No communication 
  • Unlawful gun purchases
  • “No Home Training” 
  • Violence is normalized

Solutions

  • Household training structure to teach non-violent conflict resolutions skills and mentorship. 
  • Learn to recognize trauma and bring forward for help.
  • Create better systems for mental health access
  • Provide more venues for open forum
  • Teach healthy masculinity
  • Lead by example –
    • Participants want to shift from individuality to community 

Circle 2: Social Interactions

Problems

  • Lack of self-love causes lack of love for others
  • Social atmosphere that incentivizes the wrong things. 
  • Lack of discipline and respect for authority
    • Authority (parents, law enforcement) using outdated tactics
    • Often teach consequences, but not discipline
    • Kids don’t get taught that they are worthy and deserve love
  • Mental health
    • Pointed back to lack of self-worth, self-love
    • Poverty and lack of hope in community leads to youth trauma
    • No local resources for things like depression, trauma
  • Drug Use – Participants tied this back to mental health
  • Truancy
  • Local help “professionals” are stuck in “community mindset”
    • There’s a sense of giving up, losing hope
    • Generational cycles keep parents, teachers from prepping children for the world
    • Educators are not empowered – Parents are often combative. 

Solutions

  • Showing and teaching respect, love and kindness as a community
    • Adults need to step up and be the example for the kids
  • Teach “R+R” – Respect and Responsibility
    • Respecting yourself
    • Respecting others
    • Being responsible for how you respect yourself and others
  • Avoiding shame-based identity
    • Negative labels feed into the culture of hopelessness
  • Teach youth to handle anger in healthy ways
    • The community needs to offer this outside the home
    • Also needs resources to help parents teach it in the home
  • Restore parents’ respect for institutions
    • Community needs to take responsibility for identifying and correcting issues in authority centers
  • Work to instill self-respect and self-pride among youth and adults
  • Pull in sororities and fraternities from HBCUs. 

Circle 3: Economic Opportunity

Problems

  • Milwaukee Tools factory left
  • Issues with obtaining homeowners insurance
    • There is very little coverage available 
    • Insurance won’t cover homes in disrepair
  • Permit process and costs for renovating/rebuilding
    • Local ordinances hinder community efforts to correct blight
  • Large portion of community is retired, living on fixed income/social security
    • No government assistance for housing for seniors as cost of living goes up
  • Lack of public transportation
  • Abandoned properties invite crime and violence

Solutions

  • Funding/assistance programs for seniors
  • Penalties for unmaintained properties
  • Streamline process and reduce cost of permits for rebuilding/renovating
  • General life skills training
    • Handy man program
    • Financial literacy
  • A working, accountable city council and mayor
  • Community-provided transportation services for elders
    • Maybe partner with churches

➡️ Read more stories from the Delta Bureau here.

The mission of the Mississippi Free Press, a new nonprofit journalism website and multimedia network that launched in March 2020, is to publish deep public-interest reporting into causes of and solutions to the social, political and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities. Mississippians need to know each other across regions and share our challenges and solutions despite geographic and other differences. We are introducing Mississippians to each other through our deep accountability reporting and compelling people-focused storytelling, and by convening online and physical “solutions circles,” using our statewide networks to ensure inclusivity and representation.