Community Report

Ripley County
Caring Communities Partnership

February 15, 2002

Structure of Partnership
The Ripley County Caring Community Partnership is governed by appointed and elected members. The eight board of directors are representatives of the eight state agencies and four elected officers plus the executive coordinator of the partnership. The Ripley County Caring Community Partnership meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 12:00 P.M.

Geographic Scope/Demographics
The Partnership is located in Ripley County in the Ozark Foothills region of Southeast Missouri near the Arkansas border. The county is approximately 180 miles south of St. Louis and 180 miles east of Springfield. Doniphan is the county seat and lies about 30 miles west of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, which is the regional shopping center for our county. The county is home to several thousand acres of National Forest Lands with the headquarters of the Doniphan Ranger District located in Doniphan. A popular recreational attraction in our county is the Current River that flows through the middle of the county south into Arkansas. The population estimates from the MCDC Demographic Profile, 2000 Census are given below:

 

Total for Ripley County	13,509
Doniphan	1,932
Naylor	610
Remainder of County	10,967

Ripley County residents are primarily Caucasian (97.5 %) with 1.3% American Indian/Aleut, 1.0% Hispanic, .02% Asian and 0.04% African-American/Black. The primary means of economic support in the county is agricultural, timbering, and a few small-manufacturing plants.

Mission Statement of the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership
The Ripley County Caring Community Partnership is a collaborative partnership between the educational system, community members, social service providers, churches, the business community and local governing bodies working together to strengthen the family unit, change destructive patterns and break down barriers that interfere with the educational process.

Vision Statement of the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership
The Vision of the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership is to provide a safe, healthy, satisfying environment in which families and students can become more resourceful, responsible, and self-reliant.

Community Core Results/Priorities
1. Parents Working and the benchmarks of Increased Earnings, Increased Employment, and Increased Retention of Employment.

2. Youth Ready to Enter Productive Adulthood and benchmarks of Increased High School Graduation Rates and Decreased Teen Pregnancy.

3. Young Children Ready to Enter School and benchmarks of Increased Kindergarten Readiness Test Scores.

4. Children Safe in Their Homes and Families Safe in Their Communities and benchmarks of Decreased Substantiated Child Abuse/Neglect and Decreased Out-of-Home Placement for Abuse/Neglect

5. Children Succeeding in School and benchmarks of Decreased Grade Retention, Increased Level of Reading and Mathematics, Increased Grades

6. Children and Families Healthy with benchmarks of Decreased School absences, Increased Immunization Rate at Kindergarten Enrollment

Budget/Leveraging Information

• Family Resource Center started with grants of $316,000, local funding and in-kind donations of about $40,000.
• Partnership leverages every dollar we spend with about $3.00 dollars. We have received over 1.5 million in grants in the county over the past three years. We seek resources for the community from a variety of sources. We act as an interface with state agencies. We help residents and county agencies access state agencies that may not have a presence in the county.

Identifying Community Partners
We would like to take this time to express gratitude to all of the community partners that have made the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership a success. We have recently received the Kids Count in Missouri 2000 rating of 63 up from 107 in 1999. This accomplishment would not have been possible without the dedication of our community. Some of the collaboration members include:

• Ministerial Alliance
• Ripley County Division of Family Services
• South Central Community Action Agency
• Ripley County Public Health Department
• Ripley County School Districts
• Gospel Rescue Mission
• Current River Sheltered Workshop
• Faith Community
• Chamber of Commerce
• Various Community Businesses
• City and County Government
• Civic Organizations
• Lean On Me Food Pantry
• Red Cross/Salvation Army Units

Success/Challenges

Collaborative Efforts

• We facilitated the completion of the Missouri Community Assessment Process (MOCAP) resulting in the first community plan since 1972.
• We helped develop the action steps for the “Champion Community” plan. That plan gives our county good standing with USDA-Rural Development when applying for community facility funds.
• We helped a local developer obtain $250,000 of seed money to build a 16-unit low-income housing project adjacent to our Resource Center.
• We helped a local bank obtain 30% tax credits when they donated a building to a local school that is now using it for their Head Start program.
• Our Partnership in 2001 assisted in supporting the passage of a library tax for an addition to the local library.
• Additional collaborative efforts have been made over time to start an Alternative school, a local food bank, the Ripley County Salvation Army Unit and the Ripley County Red Cross Unit.

Challenges
The challenges include keeping volunteers and the community involved in projects and tracking progress when things move slowly.