Community Profile
Jasper & Newton Counties
Southwest Missouri Community Alliance
February 15, 2002
Dear Co-Chairs:
Southwest Missouri Community Alliance is a two-county Caring Communities Partnership. Jasper County is home to 104,600. Newton County is a rural county directly south of Jasper County with a population of 52,600.
SWMCA is currently working with six communities in Jasper and Newton Counties
| School Population | Community Population |
Carl Junction | 2,548 | 5,294 |
Carthage | 3,612 | 12,668 |
Joplin | 7,299 | 45,504 |
Neosho | 4,072 | 10,505 |
Seneca | 1,651 | 2,315 |
Webb City | 3,452 | 9,812 |
Mission Statement
Southwest Missouri Community Alliance is a forum providing leadership to facilitate communication and collaboration in the Jasper/Newton community through exchange of information, education, and resources.
The SWMCA Board of Directors is comprised of twelve members representative of both counties. In addition, a Local Resource Team works closely with the partnership. Site Councils oversee and facilitate activities at the community/school level.
The Southwest Missouri Community Alliance and its local site councils are addressing four of the six core results. The prioritization of core results was accomplished through the use of surveys.
- Children and Families Health
- Children and Families Safe
- Children/Youth Succeeding in School
- Youth Ready to Enter Productive Adulthood
Southwest Missouri Community Alliance in collaboration with its sixty partners has been able to leverage $3 for each of its Caring Communities dollars. These are dollars that have been generated through joint community efforts to directly meet needs within our community.
SWMCA has been a pioneer and leader in collaborative efforts in Jasper and Newton Counties for three years. Focus areas have been teen pregnancy, health, a youth shelter, and homelessness. Additional collaboratives are in early stages of development at both the two-county and community levels.
Our greatest asset is our ability to bring people to the table to address their issues of concern. Our greatest desire is to improve the quality of life for the children and families in our two-county area. Our greatest anxiety is that we will lose our capacity to facilitate.
Most sincerely,
Connie Mosbaugh
Director
