Press Releases

Delta Bridge Project announces $161,502 grant to enhance Teach for Arkansas program in Phillips County

September 15th, 2008

The Delta Bridge Project has awarded a $161,502, two-year grant to enhance the Teach for Arkansas program and address the shortage of highly qualified kindergarten through sixth grade teachers in Phillips County, Delta Bridge Project Steering Committee Chairman Elijah Mondy announced today.

Southern Good Faith Fund welcomes three new members to Board of Directors

April 17th, 2008

PINE BLUFF—Jerry Damerow and Kim Evans, both of Little Rock, and Ben Steinberg of Helena-West Helena have joined the Southern Good Faith Fund Board of Directors, Southern Good Faith Fund President Angela Duran announced today.
Herman Davenport of Little Rock, a Southern Good Faith board member since 2002, also has been elected to serve as board Chairman, Duran said.

Ben Steinberg Receives Non-Profit Executive of the Year Award

February 27th, 2008
Source: Arkansas Business

Ben Steinberg came to Little Rock four years ago as a volunteer in Wesley Clark’s presidential campaign and never left the state.

In July 2004, he made a home in Arkansas as the president of Southern Financial Partners in Helena. “Our goal is to revitalize distressed rural communities,” the 40-year-old California native said.

Southern Good Faith Fund proposes severance tax increase to finance trust fund for higher education

January 29th, 2008
Source: SGFF Press Release

LITTLE ROCK— Southern Good Faith Fund’s Public Policy program today released a report that proposes creating an Arkansas Promise Trust Fund to help more Arkansans go to college, financed by an increase in the state’s historically low severance tax on natural gas.

$1.7 Million Affordable Housing Development in Helena-West Helena Has Opened

May 2nd, 2007
Source: Helena Daily World

Southern Place Apartments, one of the largest multi-family housing developments in Phillips County in several decades, has opened.

Southern Community Development Corporation hosted the opening ceremony yesterday. Representatives from the Arkansas Development Finance Authority; the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Development; Congressman Marion Berry’s office; and the offices of Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor spoke at the event.

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Archive: May 2007 | Section: Press Releases, Southern Bancorp, Southern CDC

Helena Health Foundation and Southern Financial Partners Announce $50,000 in Grant Funding for Delta AHEC

March 30th, 2007
Source: Press Release

The Delta Area Health Education Center will receive $50,000 in grant funds to enhance the program’s efforts to improve health care delivery. Helena Health Foundation and Southern Financial Partners each granted $25,000.

The funds received from Southern Financial Partners (SFP) and Helena Health Foundation will be used to hire a grant writer under the direction of the Director of the Delta Area Health Education Center (AHEC) in Helena-West Helena.

Rural Health Care Providers and Patients Benefit from Loan Fund

June 17th, 2002

Physicians, hospitals and other health care providers in Arkansas have received more than $8.8 million in loans to improve access to health care in rural, medically underserved areas of Arkansas through the Arkansas Rural Health Revolving Loan Fund (RLF).

Because of the success and significant impact of the RLF, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has committed another $500,000 grant to the loan fund.

Southern Financial Partners Receives Grant From USDA

March 13th, 2002

Southern Financial Partners (SFP) has received a $160,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development.

The grant will be used to capitalize a loan fund that will help finance businesses in thirteen counties in eastern Arkansas creating new jobs and providing access to over $1 million in capital to the economically distressed region.

Southern Financial Partners Receives Funding From Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation

February 6th, 2002

Southern Financial Partners received a $200,000 grant and a $1 million loan from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Southern Financial Partners (”SFP”) is a non-profit affiliate of Southern Development Bancorporation.

Southern Financial Partners provides lending services, financial training and technical assistance to small businesses in rural Arkansas and Mississippi to stimulate economic growth.

Arkansas Enterprise Group is Now Southern Financial Partners

October 15th, 2001

Arkansas Enterprise Group announced today that it will change its name to Southern Financial Partners, effective immediately. Southern Financial Partners is a non-profit affiliate of Southern Development Bancorporation, an Arkansas-based community development bank holding company.