2020-2021: Twin Forks Rising Annual Report

2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT A Pandemic Year of Recovery, Revitalization, Reconstruction, and Resiliency

2020-2021 ANNUAL REPORT A Pandemic Year of Recovery, Revitalization, Reconstruction, and Resiliency

Table of Contents

q Message from the Director

q Mission and Accomplishments

q Acknowledgments

The Pandemic Year in Review Twin Forks Rising CDC made a commitment to the historic neighborhoods within the boundaries of Ward 2 in Hattiesburg, and it has continued serving residents throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The year in review, our programs fostered the recovery of the community, helped to revitalize the local economy, began reconstructing homes, and insured the resiliency of Twin Forks for years to come.

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“Celebrating grant funding for major infrastructure improvements in Ward 2 / Twin Forks Rising, East Jerusalem community!”

(Councilwoman Delgado, Facebook, March 1, 2020)

Message from the Director Twin Forks Rising Community Development Corporation (TFR-CDC) was established to guide the comprehensive redevelopment of Ward 2 in the City of Hattiesburg. Because the area has been undervalued historically, the CDC has taken on the task of driving creative interest and economic investment to the ward.

Housing is a critical need throughout the Twin Forks community. Still showing signs of Hurricane Katrina damage, the Twin Forks community has yet to recover also from storms in 2013 and 2017. Already substandard homes gave way to the fierce winds of nature, leaving the uninsured and underinsured with no ability to rebuild. In one area of Ward 2, almost every home on six entire streets was leveled and have not been replaced due to a lack of resources. If we are to give the people of Ward 2 a fair opportunity to succeed and to raise their families, decent, safe, and sanitary housing must be provided. Our goal is to build 100 new homes in the impacted areas at the estimated cost of $140,000 per home.

In the middle of this great undertaking, the Covid 19 pandemic hit the already burdened community in a bad way, including, but not limited to, illness, suffering, death, increasing severity of the digital divide, hunger and so many more challenges faced by marginalized communities. Therefore, the CDC has taken on additional responsibilities such as providing food to those in need, job readiness training, home repairs, technical assistance for those needing help navigating government requirements for assistance, distribution of Covid 19 protective supplies, Covid 19 testing and providing Covid 19 clinics and incentives, just to name a few. All Covid 19 related goods and services have been provided in the spirit of comprehensive redevelopment of the community with human development being our number one priority.

Because of the needs of Ward 2, Twin Forks Rising CDC needs partners, investors, and volunteers to give a once vibrant community a new face and stride. As made evident by this annual report, we benefit mostly from collaborative efforts to create programs and to provide services that aid in the recovery, revitalization, and restoration of the historic Twin Forks area as it remains resilient even during a global pandemic.

Councilwoman Deborah Delgado Hattiesburg City Council Ward 2 Founder / Director, TFR-CDC

Twin Forks Rising Community Development Corporation began operating at 601 East Pine street in an old church building (formerly “The Assembly Church of God”) that eventually was acquired from a foreclosure sale and renovated in 2019.

Mission and Accomplishments q

Our Mission

To rebuild the Twin Forks Rising district to be modern, affordable and ever more resilient t to environment and economic trends for the benefits of legacy, current and future residents. We are working with our partners to make sure our vision is realized efficiently and effectively. A rising tide lifting all!

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Our Approach

We take a holistic approach to community development. We are not only working to provide brick and mortar and infrastructure, we, of necessity, address human development, including quality of life, mental and physical health, addiction, parenting skills, safety, education, prisoner reentry challenges and personal growth. q Our

Services

We are focused on getting our community members healthy, trained, and back to work. In 2020-2021, we provided heath and wellness programs including food drives for families during COVID-19 and vaccines for Ward 2 residents.

Twin Forks Rising CDC values the contributions of our partners who align with our long-term goals of assisting residents to not just survive but thrive in uncertain times.

SERVICES Volunteers Senior Citizen Meals Distributed House Repairs (w/ Tarps)

BY THE NUMBERS 172 4,425 49

Food Boxes

6,480

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

7,131

Children Lunches / Meals Distributed

9,927

Toys Giveaways

130

Volunteer Hours

2,378

REVITALIZE

Expungement Clinic

Twin Forks Rising holds different kinds of events focused on community building throughout the year.

Partnering with Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project, the South-Central Mississippi Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division of The Mississippi Bar, and Christian Services, we hosted a free Expungement Clinic. The program focused on assisting low-income Forrest County residents with clearing their criminal records in the hopes of opening opportunities for those who were formerly incarcerated. Criminal records pose barriers to accessing a quality life and navigating a legal system without counsel to clear criminal records which can be confusing and time consuming. The Expungement Clinic provided this service to help those most affected gain access to housing, driver licenses, citizenship classes, and other social and economic benefits. This event was held at the Christian Services Center in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in February of 2020.

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The Historic Mobile Street Festival of 2020 took place on 4th & Mobile Streets during the first weekend of October as in previous years. Hosting a major community event during the pandemic, however, had its challenges. Twin Forks Rising was steadfast in its commitment to revitalize the community, and the Historic Mobile Street Festival was a great embodiment of giving and celebrating life!

In collaboration between the City of Hattiesburg, Forrest County officials, the Area Development Partnership, the Tourism Commission, the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, the Mobile Bouie Neighborhood Association, Hattiesburg Public Schools, and local artists, Twin Forks Rising celebrated the rich cultural heritage of the area.

One of the key events that took place was the unveiling of a new civil rights marker to honor over a dozen African American residents who filed a historic voting rights lawsuit against Forrest County 70 years ago. This event took place in the Historic Mobile-Bouie Neighborhood in October of 2020.

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USDA Farmers to Families The USDA Farmers to Families program have delivered roughly 173,700,000 boxes of produce, meat, and other food staples to impoverished Americans across the country. When Covid-19 hit, the USDA program did not slow down. Under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Farmers to Families organization was able to get $6 billion in produce, dairy and other food and non-perishables.

Twin Forks Rising distributed food boxes weekly to families in need from April to August in 2020.

RECONSTRUCTION

In 2019, the Twin Forks Rising main office was officially renovated and it gave insight to what the rest of the community is bound to look like as reconstruction is continued. Seeing the Twin Forks Rising's main office in comparison to the surrounding area gives hope of making the community visually somewhere people would want to visit and live. Having an environment that looks good will attract more people. As Councilwoman Delgado believes, “ ‘If we can put together a community that would attract, they will come.’ ” The Twin Forks community will rise together, as one that has order, is clean, and has programming that provides people with a healthy outlook of life.

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Home Repair Programs Along with the other programs that Twin Forks Rising offers, our home repair program has flourished since 2018.

Councilwoman Delgado first began to work on the initiative back in 2013. The Home Repair program provides services like fixing roofs, building handicap accessibility ramps, and interior floor repairs for homeowners within the Twin Forks Rising area which has suffered damage from the devastation of natural disasters.

“We had two major storms that caused us to lose population. The East Jerusalem neighborhood was almost flattened in 2017.

And then the Mobile Street area in 2013.

Both of them have yet to recover because most people did not have insurance. It’s a challenge.”

--Councilwoman Delgado, The Hattiesburg American

Twin Forks Rising leverages SNAP Grant Funds, Federal Home Loan Bank, and other private foundations dollars to provide home repair services. One of the first donors to this program was The First, with its National Banking Association’s Special Needs Assistance Program. They donated small grants towards this cause. SNAP grants were awarded a first-come, first-served basis.

The grants provided funding for the repair and rehabilitation of owneroccupied housing of eligible, specialneeds individuals, who can qualify for the grants based on age, disabilities, income, and other eligibility standards.

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Reconstruction is not just about building up the community with physical buildings, but also building and reconstructing relationships within the community.

Re-Entry Program Twin Forks Rising’s Re-Entry Program was created for former incarcerated individuals. This program demonstrates both the purpose and impact of Twin Forks Rising as a reconstructing agency by helping ex-offenders with housing, skills training, and job opportunities. One important outcome from this program was bringing two exoffenders to work and volunteer with the organization as they contribute immensely to the work of Twin Forks Rising. 1 4

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RESILIENCE 1 5

Youth are definite indicators of a community’s resilience, and Twin Forks Rising targeted this segment of the community with the Kids Keep It Moving Initiative and the Summer Feeding Program for Children. The Kids Keep It Moving program took place from 2019 to 2020. Twin Forks Rising received a grant funded by the Morehouse School of Medicine to kickstart this program; its main goal was to improve black males' health. Children from ages to seven to seventeen were able to participate in this program with lessons in exercise, nutrition, and health education. Demonstrating their resilience, the children in this program resolved to overcome their difficult conditions by working together to improve it.

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CHILDREN AND SENIOR CITIZENS FEEDING PROGRAMS Launched in spring and summer of 2020, the Feeding Programs for senior citizens and children are still operating.

Twin Forks Rising operates a drive thru program that serves hot meals daily for children in need. The resources necessary for this program are provided by the FUEL feeding program in collaboration with Forrest County Supervisors, Roderick Woullard and Sharon Thompson. This specific health and wellness program for Ward 2 residents feeds children who otherwise may not have access to nutritious meals daily. This community was greatly affected by the coronavirus and this program has helped alleviate some of the stress of food insecurity.

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TFR Annual Report

Since the onset of Covid 19, Twin Forks Rising has collaborated with the Cadillac Pig BBQ Restaurant to deliver hot meals to senior citizens and the disabled every Tuesday.

With the support of volunteers, Twin Forks Rising has organized drive-thru food distribution and the delivery of food boxes to families in need throughout the community, particularly in housing projects and senior living complexes, since March 2020.

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RECOVERY

Rental Assistance Program The Rental Assistance Program was another opportunity for Twin Forks Rising to help citizens in the community during the coronavirus pandemic. RAP event took place this year in September 2021 in hopes of reaching people in need to help them pay for their rent or any other bills they were struggling to cover.

Volunteers from the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, the Children’s Defense Fund, and the Forrest Counties Chapter of the NAACP made this event possible by providing funding and assistance with completing residents’ applications for immediate economic relief.

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“We now see that we are doing what we need to be doing for the citizens of our community. Many have different stories. Some are homeless. Others have been laid off from their jobs. We need to make sure that we are addressing the needs of persons who are in need.”

--Councilwoman Deborah Delgado, WDAM Hattiesburg, September 29, 2021

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Census Workshops The Twin Forks Rising Census workshops began on March 7, 2020. As part of the vigorous “Hattiesburg Count” campaign launched by the city, the workshops’ goal was to educate residents and increase participation in the 2020 census. The city of Hattiesburg depends on the census to allocate funding for public education, transportation, and many other vital services and resources for residents. Mayor Toby Barker supported Twin Forks Rising’s efforts for community outreach as it organized informative workshops to increase chances for the district to be accurately represented by the census.

Each member of this community matters.

Despite the natural disasters Twin Forks has experienced and all those citizens that had to relocate, an accurate census can bring funding back to the area and recover what was lost, hopefully attracting former residents and new ones.

Job Ready Veterans (Partnership for Veterans) Job Ready Veterans is a nonprofit organization that originated in Indianapolis, Indiana. On September 24, 2021, it signed a MOU with Twin Forks Rising ensuring support to anyone with a military background. The program will assist local veterans with coaching, mentoring, and teaching to help them find employment. A few sponsors and partners of the Job Ready Veterans program are Lilly Endowment Inc, Recruit Military, Pride Academy, Nicholas, H. Noyes, Jr. Memorial Foundation, CODE Recipient and many more. The many success stories show what this program is really working to create a new start for our veterans.

Twin Forks Rising 2020-2021 Annual Report

PHOTO GALLERY A look back at all the moments that mattered…

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COVID 19 Care Packages of PPE

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Venue for outdoor movies to allow “social distancing” during the Mobile-Bouie Festival in October 2020

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Participates in the Kids Keep it Moving program learning to play chess while gaining valuable life skills in critical thinking and strategic planning.

Black Lives Matter protesters, about 1,000 gathering at the Forrest County Circuit Courthouse, called for an end to racial injustice as part of a global movement. Protesters marched through downtown Hattiesburg on June 13, 2020.

Twin Forks Rising 2020-2021 Annual Report

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Partnerships, Volunteers, and Donors BANCORPSOUTH BRENDA CAFFEE CALLIE KEYS CAREER LEARNING & EMPLOYMENT CENTER DBA OPERATION JOB READY VETS CATHERINE & CHAD EDMONSON CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK CITY OF HATTIESBURG COUNCILWOMEN DEBORAH DELEGO CROWDIE LOVE DAISY W. LYNUM DANE STRATEGIES,LLC DAVID SHEMPER DEBORAH F. BLAKE FORREST COUNTY BOARD OF SUPER. HATTIESBURG CONVENTION COMMISSION HATTIESBURG ASSOCIATION FOR CIVIC IMPROVEMENT IRENE WILLIAMS JONES JEAN ARNOLD KERMIS EATON MAR-JAC POULTRY MS, LLC MISSISSIPPI POWER COMPANY NAACP - HATTIESBURG CHAPEL PATHWAY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP PAUL HOLMES RAYLAWNI G. BRANCH RICHARD COLEMAN JR SHADY OAK MISSIONARY BAPT CHURCH SOUTHERN RURAL BLACK WOMEN'S INITIATIVE T L CONSTRUCTION THE SUNSHINE LADY FOUNDATION, INC WALMART

TOTAL CASH DONATION = $204,968.74

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Contact us: hello@tfrcdc.org (601) 818-9275 (601) 818-5588 601 East Pine Street Hattiesburg, MS 39401