State Auditor Shad White commissioned a short August 2022 report on fatherlessness stating that “Mississippi policymakers should expand programs like JROTC” as a solution for Mississippi families.
Hattiesburg, Miss., native Virginia Sciolino writes that when having discussions centering abortion and women’s reproductive rights, emotional intelligence and empathy is needed to break barriers and to challenge systemic disparities. We should “come into conversations with an emphasis on empathy, boundaries, mutual care and respect,” she writes.
Shanina Carmichael reflects on her experiences as a woman, mother and wife during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the love from her village of Mississippi women continues to guide and uplift her despite the many challenges her family endured. “Losing access to schools, childcare providers and friend groups was more frightening to me than the disease itself,” Carmichael writes.
Dr. Karla McCullough, executive director of the Juanita Sims Doty Foundation, says Mississippi should embed core “humanizing factors” into our varying service support systems to improve relations and engagement within our communities, especially communities of color.
Duvalier Malone encourages the American people to hold our legislators accountable by participating in local, state and federal elections. He believes democracy is at stake and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act must be passed in order to rightly protect the voting rights of the people.
Editor Donna Ladd writes: “We do this cause/solution-driven journalism to serve our communities, our people and to actually help move needles in our state. We are here to celebrate local efforts and to expose inadequacies that make conditions worse for traditionally marginalized Mississippians. But we are also fans of challenging the narratives of our state outside the state lines.”
FASTnet, a for-profit subsidiary of the not-for-profit 4-County Electric Power Association, is providing broadband service to rural areas around the Golden Triangle area of Mississippi. COVID-19 magnified the disparities many Black families faced with little or no reliable internet access as they tried to continue their children’s education from home. Federal dollars should now boost the cooperative solution across Mississippi, barring roadblocks.
Altogether, 18 business owners gathered at The Synergy Link at 135 Bounds St. in the capital city on Sept. 17, 2021, to listen to Hope Credit Union Senior Credit Officer Danielle Ware and Vice President Dwight Rawls. Mississippi Black Pages, a statewide platform for Black entrepreneurs to connect for exposure and development, organized the event as part of their monthly series tagged “Network your Net Worth Professional Mixer.”
The duplicitous nature of the relationship between policy makers and Wall Street opens the door to predatory lenders who prey on disenfranchised residents whose only access to banking is check cashing centers, payday-loan stores and ATMs. Major banking institutions like Wells Fargo and TD Bank have agreed to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution for illegal practices that targeted ADOS and other marginalized consumers.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
