OurTupelo

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Yvonne Moore collects specimen for COVID-19 testing outside of the Aaron E Henry Community Health Services Center in Clarksdale, Miss., Wednesday, March 29, 2020.

As state leaders continue to relax statewide safety measures and businesses reopen, Mississippi reported its highest ever weekly count of COVID-19 cases.

The state health department recorded 1,956 new cases this week, the most total cases for a week in Mississippi. Daily new cases have remained steady all week, whereas prior weeks have shown more day-to-day variability in new cases numbers. The past week is the first to have only one day reporting less than 200 cases: Monday’s 136 cases.

The startling weekly statistics come days after Gov. Tate Reeves announced additional safety restrictions would be relaxed. Reeves has kept a “safer at home” recommendation in place, which suggest that Mississippians stay socially distanced and avoid public places. But his previous orders that closed many businesses across the state have largely been retracted. As of Monday, the only businesses that remain closed because of executive order are indoor entertainment venues such as theaters and museums.

Sundays and Mondays traditionally show lower case counts due to weekend reporting lags from labs. But even with the lags, this week’s numbers have remained high, averaging 279 daily cases, the highest rolling average for any week since the pandemic began. At last count, the health department estimated 69 percent of all cases had recovered, meaning about 3,500 are considered actively contagious.

More than a month ago, officials said the state was likely in a new case plateau, though they warned there was no way to know for sure. Both Gov. Tate Reeves and State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said that the state has successfully “flattened the curve,” meaning prevented cases from spiking as to not overburden the health care system.

Though hospitalizations have risen over the week, they have remained mostly stable. However, number of new cases are distinct from hospitalizations, and those trends could reverse if cases don’t flatten and continue to spread, especially to those most vulnerable.

Testing has increased over the week, averaging 5,300 daily diagnostic tests over the last four days, potentially accounting for increased cases. Mississippi is now reporting COVID-19 diagnostic tests separately from its reported antibody tests, which look for past infections. Antibody tests account for growing proportion of all COVID tests in the state — now at 6 percent, up from 3 percent mid-week. Since a handful of states have separated out the two tests, their total testing numbers have declined, recovering from the artificial boost of the antibody test inclusion.

Thursday, the Sun Herald reported that the state health department has been aggregating antibody tests and diagnostic tests since antibody testing came online last month, confounding public health experts who question both the reasoning and effect of the unusual methodology decision. At least seven other states and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have since admitted the same.

“It does indicate infection, it’s just past infection, so it does give us historical perspective about the total number of cases, so there’s value in it,” Dobbs said Thursday in a press briefing. “We could separate them out. That’s not a big deal. I don’t think it’s an inflation of numbers. It’s just a different mechanism of identifying an infection.”

Dobbs has been emphatic in the past that antibody testing could be useful for understanding how widespread the disease is, but that there are unknowns about its medical value and should be distinct from diagnostic testing.

The two tests measure different snapshots of COVID infection. Viral tests — performed by a DNA nose swab — diagnose a current infection. But serology tests, a blood draw, show the presence of antibodies that the immune system develops to fight off infections, suggesting a former infection.

Antibody tests caught on quickly in the month since they have been available, though experts have warned against reading too much into the tests as it’s not clear what former infections mean for immunity other than helping to identify a true prevalence of the disease.  The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the tests, has warned against reading too much into the tests and recently increased previously lacking standards for the tests.

Quest Diagnostics has performed 975,000 antibody tests nationally as of Monday and offers the test direct-to-consumers, bypassing state health systems. As of Sunday, Mississippi reported 9,057 antibody tests.

The problem with lumping in the two different counts is two-fold. First, it could inflate testing numbers, like is the case in Georgia, if the cases identified through antibody tests are not added to the tally of confirmed cases. Mississippi says they are including antibody-identified cases in the total case count, so the artificial boost in tests should be countered by adding in the cases found.

Dobbs has said antibody tests have shown a 2 percent positive rate, though the health department has not updated the antibody case-identification rate since Thursday. If the 2 percent figure is still accurate, 181 cases in the state have been identified this way over the month, accounting for just 1 percent of the more than 13,000 confirmed cases in the state and 2 percent of the new cases over the past month.

However, adding in those cases begets its own challenge — those 181 reflect previous infections, and don’t help identifying active cases. Because diagnostic and antibody tests measure different things, they are not helpful in the same way to the public or to scientists. At worst, it can be misleading, and at best, it identifies overall disease prevalence but does not aid case-tracing for current infection or help stop active spread by isolating cases.

Despite the inclusion of antibody tests, diagnostic testing alone has ramped up over the week after slowing in previous weeks. The state’s lab reported its most ever single-day tests this week, averaging 730 daily tests. Mississippi has had a consistently high rate of tests compared to other states, ranking 18th in the U.S. — accounting for diagnostic tests only — as of Friday, according to Mississippi Today’s analysis of the COVID Tracking Project’s national data.

The state announced universal testing for long-term care facilities in mid-May, which partially accounts for both the testing increase and the case increase. However, long-term care cases have only slightly edged up over the week — by 204 cases, or 14 percent — less than they increased the week prior at 25 percent.

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Mississippi Supreme Court

African Americans make up 38 percent of the state’s population, but only 11 percent of the membership of the Mississippi Supreme Court. This November’s election could change that.

Latrice Westbrooks of Lexington, one of two African Americans on the 10-member Court of Appeals, is challenging long-time Mississippi jurist Kenny Griffis in the November general election for a spot on the Supreme Court representing the Central District of Mississippi.

While Griffis has more judicial experience, Westbrooks is a formidable candidate – an experienced attorney who has won a district-wide race for the state’s second highest court. In short, both candidates can tout qualifications. But what makes this race unique is that it provides the best opportunity in the state’s history for there to be two black justices on the Supreme Court at the same time.

Bobby Harrison

Since 1985, Democratic and Republican governors have made efforts to ensure there would be at least one black Mississippian on the Supreme Court – all representing the same Central District post. Supreme Court justices are elected from three districts – three each from the Northern, Southern and Central districts. In 1985, Democrat Gov. Bill Allain appointed Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Reuben Anderson to a vacant spot, making him the first African American on the Supreme Court as created by Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution.

Anderson later won election to the post before resigning to go into private law practice. At that point, Democratic Gov. Ray Mabus appointed another black jurist to the seat, Fred Banks, who was elected to the post twice before resigning and being replaced by James Graves, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.

Graves also won election to the seat, but then was appointed to the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Barack Obama. At that point in 2011, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Leslie King, who remains the only black member of the court.

During the 35-year time period that four African Americans have held the same seat from the Central District, white Mississippians have held the other two Central District seats.

In late 2018, Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. resigned from his Central District seat and eventually ran for governor where he reached a runoff before losing to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.

To replace Waller, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Griffis, who was chief judge of the Court of Appeals, where he served with Westbrooks.

State of Mississippi Judiciary

Latrice Westbrooks is challenging long-time Mississippi jurist Kenny Griffis.

The Central District, according to the 2010 Census, has an African American voting-age population of 51 percent. Public service commissioners and transportation commissioners also are elected from the same districts as Supreme Court justices.

Both Democrats and Republicans have prevailed in recent Central District elections. In 2019, Democrat Willie Simmons, also an African American, won the Central District Transportation Commission seat. But in the same year Republican Brent Bailey was elected to the Public Service Commission from the Central District, defeating De’Keither Stamps, an African American member of the Jackson City Council.

The Westbrooks-Griffis Supreme Court election is expected to be more competitive than most judicial contests. Both candidates are lining up support. While candidates for judicial seats do not declare a party affiliation, much of the Republican establishment and much of the business community are lining up for Griffis, who was first elected to the Court of Appeals in the early 2000s as a candidate supporting changes to the civil justice system to provide more protection from lawsuit for businesses.

“As a legislator I know how important it is to have justices on our Supreme Court who properly interpret and apply the law without trying to legislate from the bench,” said state Sen. Jennifer Branning, R-Philadelphia. “That’s why I’m supporting Justice Griffis. He’s a constitutional conservative who deserves our support based on his record, character and work ethic.”

Of course, many Democratic groups are lining up behind Westbrooks – as is Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs, who is an independent.

“I have known her for a long time,” Flaggs said. “She always has been passionate and an advocate for helping those who are less fortunate.”

But Flaggs said the fact Westbrooks is African American is not the reason he is supporting her.

“I would love to see another African American, particularly a female, on the Supreme Court,” said Flaggs. “I think that would make great history for Mississippi. But at the same time she has the qualifications to be on the Supreme Court and, besides that she is a great person.”

Oh, by the way, in addition to one African American currently serving on the Supreme Court, there also is one woman – Dawn Beam of Sumrall in the Southern District. Like with black justices, there have been only four women justices in the state’s history  – two – Beam and Ann Hannaford Lamar – serving together for a brief period in 2016.

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Late morning edges into afternoon in the Community Room at the Arts Center of Mississippi in Jackson, and the stories tumble out — of the front line in Mississippi’s civil rights struggle, of a sharecroppers’ daughter determined to get an education, of the degrading checkpoints in occupied Gaza a Palestinian family’s young son never forgot.

Founders and staff of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures gather for a workshop with Blue Magnolia Films, the pioneering Mississippi-based documentary film company that spotlights bright spots in the state and forges community connection through storytelling. 

Aiming to take the museum from a local/regional presence to a national profile, they see founders’ succinct photo documentaries as a key piece in that goal. “We have a just story to tell, and people can connect with it from a human perspective. We just need to tell it in a better way,” says museum founder Emad Al-Turk.

Blue Magnolia Films’ way zeroes in on the “why” thread, helping individuals craft and tell their unique stories in an engaging way, with a purpose and universal resonance.

Blue Magnolia Films was founded by Mississippi native and documentary filmmaker Chandler Griffin and his wife, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Alison Fast, in 2013. Their project for Mississippi’s bicentennial in 2017 —  short documentary films highlighting cool projects and creatives, many in small towns around the state — introduced not only the film’s author/subjects, but also, for many here, a powerful and positive method of storytelling. 

Blue Magnolia Films has done about 160 workshops in 24 countries, including across the Middle East and Africa, helping people apply storytelling to goals in health, development, democracy building and human rights. “This is very much our specialty,” Griffin says. “I’m a fifth-generation Mississippian, so where else would we be doing this? We’ve really been around the planet and very much are taking everything we’ve learned and applying it now to Mississippi.” Work with Volunteer Mississippi highlighted stories of service; workshops with Selma, Alabama, showcased stories of revitalization to mark Alabama’s bicentennial and Selma’s 200th anniversary.

The Community Foundation for Mississippi, now in its 25th anniversary year, is working with Blue Magnolia Films on a suite of photo documentaries to get at the heart of why people do the work they do, to change the communities they live in. Jane Alexander, foundation executive director and long a fan of Blue Magnolia Films’ work in the state, was sold on the accessible, cost-effective, “extraordinarily personal” workshops. Resulting stories connect with people in a way that numbers and annual reports can’t.

Alexander wanted Blue Magnolia Films’ iPhone photo/personal narrative approach for stories of individuals less directly involved with the Community Foundation, but whose admirable work touched tandem chords. “Their level of commitment to community is a story that’s worth lifting up.” Rich, layered narratives share stories of risk takers and leaders who put some part of their lives on the line for something important, such as Jackson Public Schools Chief of Staff Michael Cormack. He left the Barksdale Reading Institute and uprooted his family to take up that mantle; he highlights the possibilities ahead in his photo story, “Excellence for All.”

Alexander hopes to re-ignite a community spirit that was a matter of course in her parents’ generation, that is perhaps less so in current times. “What we’ve lost is this feeling that we have a shared responsibility to build our own places and make those places good to live in.”

Photo documentaries by architect Buddy Faulkner, restaurateur and Extra Table founder Robert St. John and Cormack will soon be joined by another three — by Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy leader Sammy Moon, by Winter Institute Youth Engagement Coordinator Von Gordon, by JPS Partners in Education Director Thea Faulkner, and by Alexander. That’s it for this year, but Alexander’s plan extends to future workshops — annually, the hope is — to highlight constituents’ stories.

“It really leads to a very deep dive into your own life and your own thoughts and philosophy,” Alexander says, likening “dig deeper” talks with Fast to “just like those late-night college conversations we used to get into at 2 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday night after too many beers at CS’s. … like when you have the luxury to really think about the ‘why’ of your life, and not just the ‘what’ of your life.”

As Fast says, “The more personal your story is, the more personable, the more vulnerable, the more honest, open, sincere, the more universal it becomes.”

With this process, “There’s a format, but there’s not a formula. It is about taking a journey, and each person will take a journey, using photography and narrative — oral history,” Fast says. “Each person has different touchstones.”  Values-based and place-based stories emerge through the intense and organic workshop, over days of mentorship, reflection and deep conversation, over thousands of photographs, over script revisions and recordings to get at the heart of each individual’s backstory, involvement, hopes and purpose. 

“We help people to connect their own stories to where they live, and then to those they serve. … It really is not only telling our stories, but putting our stories in service of our community, and the values that we want to grow,” Fast says.

In the finished documentary, stories unfold in the author’s voice, over dozens of photographs (often by that person), and take viewers along, connecting — human to human — in a meaningful way. Stories emerge from the inside, out, that’s especially important in Mississippi, where stories are often underrepresented or misrepresented, Fast says.

At a time when Muslims are under attack worldwide and false narratives abound, “Our work is even more important, to actually correct the stereotypical depictions of Muslims and Islam,” the International Museum of Muslim Culture’s Al-Turk says. “Our faith guides us to do this in a respectful way … to present the facts about our faith to the American public, and if people know what Islam is about, what the message of peace and coexistence and love and care that Islam promotes us to do, then the narrative will change over time.” 

Photo stories by museum founding families Okolo and Sababu Rashid and Emad Al-Turk (with another by his wife, Karen, expected later) will be used as the museum’s exhibition “Muslims with Christians & Jews: Covenants & Coexistence” begins touring nationally, sharing commonalities among the faith traditions and building bridges of understanding.

“We always say, ‘Tell the kind of stories you want more of,’” Fast says. People can get stuck in a narrative, or with a naysaying approach about what’s not working. 

“There always is a story of what is working, and if we want more of that story, we need to tell that story, make it visible. And, the best people to tell that story — the ones who can authenticate it, the ones who can voice it — are the ones who are living it.”

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Students are to return to campus this fall. The challenge is how to keep them safe.

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This May 4, 2017 photograph, shows Nancy New, owner and Director of the Mississippi Community Education Center (MCEC) and New Learning, Inc., at a social function in Jackson, Miss. Special agents from the office of State Auditor, have arrested New and several others in connection with a multi-million dollar embezzlement scheme. The indictments include a range of violations involving fraud and embezzlement. (Sarah Warnock/The Clarion-Ledger via AP)

Nancy New, whose nonprofit received tens of millions of federal welfare dollars intended to help struggling families out of poverty, told Mississippi Today in 2018 she wanted to see the resources “getting right to the people.”

That’s not what happened. Now she awaits trial on embezzlement charges, to which she pleaded not guilty, while an FBI investigation into the alleged welfare scheme continues.

Before she was arrested, New’s organization, Mississippi Community Education Center, and another nonprofit, Family Resource Center of North Mississippi, ran a statewide program called Families First for Mississippi with the new focus of helping low-income families secure employment to support their families instead of public assistance.

They would do this by offering soft skills training, such as resume writing and interviewing, and work supports, such as donated professional clothing, to adults otherwise unprepared for today’s workforce.

In reality, they helped very few low-income families find self sufficiency, according to outcome documents the nonprofits provided to the Mississippi Department of Human Services, the agency funding the program. From 2017 to 2019, the nonprofits reported helping 652 people receive a Career Ready Certificate, 94 write a resume, and 72 complete a job application, though the reporting is likely flawed. They did not track how many of their clients got a job or how much more money they may have earned after the program.

And yet, the nonprofits received about $100 million from the state welfare agency over three years.

Mississippi Community Education Center instead funneled millions to New’s private school company, bought expensive personal vehicles, leased property she owned just for it to sit empty, and paid for the pet projects of retired athletes, such as a $5 million volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi, concussion research, the mortgage on a horse ranch and a fitness boot camp, according to a state audit published in early May. 

The audit accuses former Human Services director John Davis, who also pleaded not guilty within the alleged scheme, of enabling, and in some cases directing, the nonprofit to spend the funds this way.

Mississippi Today sat down with Nancy New and other nonprofit employees in October of 2018, while the nonprofit was allegedly perpetrating what the State Auditor called the largest public embezzlement scheme in state history, to talk about her nonprofit’s work. She has not made any public statements since her arrest in early February, but the following transcript is how she explained their mission back then.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mississippi Today: How was Families First conceived? I understand now that Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center of North Mississippi combined in this effort. What was the genesis of that?

Nancy New: I’ve been part of Families First resource centers for 25 years, from its inception. Actually when the federal money first flowed down to the states across the nation, Mississippi was one of them to receive monies to actually set up Family First resource centers to serve families, so I was fortunate then to have a small grant and to get services started in the Delta.

So the whole concept of Families First for Mississippi and the services is to enhance and empower families through getting them stabilized through education, through services and so forth. It is also to reach the whole family. That’s called the Gen+ model.

Where we have concentrated on helping that individual and perhaps the individual’s child or vice versa, what we want to do is learn about the whole family. Let’s reach every individual in the family. Let’s start changing families lives instead of just one person in that family because if we can impact the whole family, that’s going to be much more powerful and beneficial than just one individual.

It hasn’t changed in the last 25 years. What’s happened is that it’s grown and where we were concentrated in just a few areas across the state, according to resources, financial and other resources, we were able to expand that through this greater effort now.

You ask about the two organizations, that’s just a matter of logistics. We divided the state so we could manage it better.

When did that happen?

Nancy New: It really began about five years ago. At that time Mr. Berry was director. They — and when I say ‘they’, I’m speaking of the leaders of Department of Human Services, as well as federal leaders, too — they said, ‘How can we help Mississippi even more so? How can we make these dollars really really have a greater impact?’ Through the family resource centers we had had really good results, in ours and as well as Mrs. (Christy) Webb’s (director of Family Resource Center of North Mississippi) certainly had. Anyway, with the leaders in discussions — and I wasn’t part of any of those discussions at DHS — they said, let’s do this greater. Let’s make a huge impact by really putting our efforts behind this. And get in the communities. (John Davis, former head of the Department of Human Services) will explain this: He really wants to get the services smack dab in as many communities as he possibly can.

(Editor’s note: Human Services awarded New’s nonprofit TANF grants of $1 million in each fiscal year 2016 and 2015, $14.3 million in 2017 and $21.5 million in 2018, according to documents Davis provided to lawmakers. By 2020, it had received over $55 million in TANF funds since the beginning of fiscal year 2017, according to a Mississippi Today review of state expenditures). 

…I really want the right information out there. It’s critical because we are doing a great job and so many people are involved, but there are negative people. Some of it may be that we need to correct it, but also it’s just because they don’t know.

What kind of things have you heard?

Nancy New: For one thing, I’ve heard that we’re getting an enormous amount of money and it’s getting duplicated … and I understand people saying that because they don’t understand. First of all, we’re not getting an enormous amount of money, just us. And I want Mr. Davis to explain that. It looks like our budget is whatever but then a lot of that money is not operating money. That goes right back out to our partners, which is great.

How much would you say is Families First operations versus funding to partners?

Nancy New: At least half — at least — for partners. Oh absolutely. That’s great because that’s helping us. When we say partners, these are people who are already getting funding directly. But Mr. Davis is wanting to make sure the people getting funded are doing what Families First needs to be done. So he’s pulling us all together.

By the money flowing through us, that allows us to even join forces together to drive the pillars of Families First. He wants to make sure if the partners are out there, and we’re doing it, everybody’s doing the right thing together and that’s addressing what Families First is supposed to be about.

Explain the genesis of the expansion in 2016 then. Was that an RFP (Request for Proposal)?

Nancy New: Yes it was.

They (Mississippi Department of Human Services) expanded or increased some of the pillars we were to address, and primarily toward workforce. Stabilizing the family and workforce. And literacy.

We had done some workforce things to some extent with out partners. More goals and objectives were written for us to address.

(Editor’s note: The State Auditor’s report revealed that former Human Services Director John Davis disregarded procurement regulations in order to award large grants to New’s nonprofit).

What specific workforce development activities does Families First offer, besides resume writing and—?

Nancy New: Right, the soft skills. We try to do so many soft skills because our partners with the community college are huge. We have wonderful partnerships across the state with our community college system and of course they focus so much on workforce, so we’re trying to get our clients, we’re trying to get them ready to go to the second step of workforce training. Ours are mostly soft skills.

(Editor’s note: Most of the community colleges that Families First for Mississippi listed as subcontract partners on their annual report did not respond to or declined to answer questions about their grants. The audit questioned the nonprofit’s TANF payments to three community colleges ranging from $62,905 to $193,701, a small fraction of the nonprofit’s $55 million Families First grant funds.)

I was thinking that there may be some direct assistance to families done through Families First but it sounds like there’s not. So I just want to make sure I understand: People can’t come here to get their lights paid. There’s no direct financial assistance being provided.

Nancy New: No. What is being provided to families — what we are finding through referrals, families are falling onto hard times and they need help immediately. We have benevolent funds, where we get donations to help underwrite some of those. For instance, a family found themselves having to have a lot of medical assistance, and they got behind on their bills, their lights and so forth, so if we have enough money in the benevolent fund to help, once we verify the legitimacy of the need, we do help them out of our fund.

How much would you say is paid out of that? Or has been so far?

Nancy New: For us, we depleted and got more donations, but every one of the requests. The requests are huge. The people need so much in the state. But, a few thousand dollars, maybe? Somewhere along that.

The 2017 federal TANF numbers came out yesterday and we have spent about $35 million more in TANF than we did in 2016, which would match with Families First coming on board. And we actually spent $1 million less in the same year on basic cash assistance to families. I wonder how you reconcile that. Is this the direction we’re heading as a state?

Nancy New: That’s a question I would like to ask Mr. Davis myself. Monetarily, we’re in a lot of meetings. I can’t answer this accurately because this is a question I haven’t thought about. This is a great question. I don’t think it’s the goal to keep money away from people, I think it’s the goal to put enough support to help the people.

Laura Goodson, an attorney and MCEC’s then-advocacy director: The way we talk about it a lot internally, and from a policy standpoint, is to put enough support in the community to help individuals stabilize themselves so they don’t necessarily need government benefits like TANF. It is not to not have them there when they’re needed and when they need to apply for them, but to help someone that didn’t have a job before, maybe was having to apply for SNAP or TANF benefits, because they didn’t have a workforce skill to get the job that would help them get a livable wage and move that wage up over time.

Not in a negative way. There are definitely people, and a lot of them in our state, who need it, and that is not something that anyone wants to deny. The idea is to try to help them also get skills.

We spent about six percent of our TANF budget on basic assistance and about half on work supports and activities. Do you think that that is the right way to divide those funds?

Nancy New: I think what we have to do is be very careful as we assess who needs what. If they’re in real true need and cannot help themselves, then I think it’s our duty as a community to help. But at the same time, I think it’s important that we support efforts in getting people to become as self reliant as possible, through education and other means of support, because that’s going to help them — I don’t want them just to survive, I want them to thrive.

I’m for giving people resources to help become very independent and gain their pride. We get a lot of clients who think they can’t go to community college or vocational training and once they come through Families First and get the soft skills and encouragement and just the confidence that, ‘I can do this.’ That’s what I want to see. Now, how much money goes here and how much money goes there. Mr. Davis is the financial person; he can really address this ’cause he is such a mastermind on all this, but I want to see the resources, whether it’s monetarily or through education, I want to see it getting right to the people.

My heart goes out to the people who may not be able to help themselves. And they’re out there. They’re really out there. And it’s legitimate. We’ve got to help those people.

Being that most of your Families First funding comes from TANF, I assume that most people you’re serving are people who are at that low-income level. The people who left TANF in the last five years made an average of $12,000 a year after leaving TANF. TANF is a work program. We say that a request for TANF is a request for a job. The people who are leaving made $12,000. If they made $12,000, they’re probably going to be coming back to Families First. How do you reconcile that? Are jobs the answer to poverty in this case?

Nancy New: We love those cases because that means they’re coming back for more help and that tells us that they want to improve even more so. That assistance to that person got him or her hopefully on the right path to improving their living environment and we’re going to do what we need to do to help them get to the next step.

Laura Goodson: Jobs is definitely a big part of it. Also, what Nancy mentioned, education. Transportation is a huge issue.

Nancy New: And child care. The two things: child care and transportation.

Does Families First offer child care or transportation?

Nancy New: In some areas we do. We work very closely with Head Start and some other groups across the state. Yes, we try to provide child care in as many areas, or we coordinate with the good existing providers already out there.

(Editor’s note: Laura Goodson clarified that the Families First centers do not provide day care to parents. Additionally, no child care providers were listed on the Families First for Mississippi subcontract partner list).

Have you really been able to track workforce outcomes since the expansion?

Nancy New: We, along with Mimmo (Mimmo Parisi, executive director of the National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center at Mississippi State University) and Community College, we should be able to get you some really good numbers on that. Community College, as our partners, have some really good outcomes on that. And we can find those for you. We’ll be glad to do our best to gather that.

(Editor’s note: The nonprofit did not respond to repeated follow up requests for this information. When this interview took place, Mississippi Today had an interview scheduled the next day with former MDHS director John Davis, but he cancelled shortly after Mississippi Today’s interview with Nancy New, citing a conflict, and never rescheduled).

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