Like the rising river of the Arkansas Delta, the persistence of poverty still looms just over the levee, threatening to wash young people down paths of violence, drugs, food insecurity, unemployment, and early death. That’s why Together for Hope is committed to growing the gifts and dreams of Helena’s children as they seek to interrupt cycles of generational poverty and instill lasting hope in the Delta’s youngest.
Watch the interview with Earnest Womack on the Pool:
Read more in the Arkansas Delta series:
At the center of Helena, Arkansas’s fight against poverty and division: an 85-year-old swimming pool
Imagination is the greatest threat to Delta poverty, Together for Hope Arkansas says
Phillips County, Arkansas: Backwater Rising
Video: Janee’ Tisby on Volunteers
Video: Janee’ Tisby on Poverty
Video: Earnest Womack on the Pool
Video: Earnest Womack on Poverty
Related commentary at baptistnews.com:
Survival mode | Jason Coker
Reimagining churches as full-time partners with those in poverty | Laura Rector
Related news at baptistnews.com:
Hope blooms in the Arkansas Delta, thanks to ministry team
This series in the “Resilient Rural America” project is part of the BNG Storytelling Projects Initiative. Has the United States forgotten its countryside? What strength and resilience may yet be stirring outside our city limits? In “Resilient Rural America,” we attempt to answer these questions when we visit these unique communities to examine the singular nature of poverty in rural America and tell the stories of development among its courageous and resilient people.
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Seed money to launch our Storytelling Projects initiative and our initial series of projects has been provided through generous grants from the Christ Is Our Salvation Foundation and the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation. For information about underwriting opportunities for Storytelling Projects, contact David Wilkinson, BNG’s executive director and publisher, at [email protected] or 336.865.2688.