This is a planning grant to develop administrative capacity building and to complete a needs assessment/community buy-in for job creation for low-income residents.The project will be called: One By On - Reaching Infinity will use $150,000 in CED Planning funds to build the administrative capacity of the community to develop a fundable CED project by implementing a case worker team that will work one-on-one with key participants to create a community of new small business jobs for low-income areas in Mississippi. Within Claibourne and Jefferson counties and four census tracts within Copiah County, Mississippi, this project will bring economic development with particular emphasis on adding new jobs to existing businesses and creating a culture of entrepreneurship. Existing resources to support small businesses often require long travel times through rural communities, and businesses which need help can’t take the time off to attend. Responding to this, Reaching Infinity will implement a case worker model to effectively service the region. Planning activities for this case worker model include bringing together community stakeholders, securing community support for future initiatives, evaluating existing community strengths and resources, and identifying available funding at all levels of government and private opportunities. To effectively plan the case worker model, Reaching Infinity will identify existing resource providers to build future case worker capacity, hold community stakeholder meetings to learn of residents likely to engage with future services, and finally hold wider community engagement sessions to learn about employment history, gaps, and interests, education and skill backgrounds, and considerations for health, transportation, and other barriers to employment. As a result of these planning activities, Reaching Infinity will be well-positioned to submit a CED job creation project application to spur economic development and job growth.
