Building a Prosperous Community
“We almost hit the point of no return,” the mayor of Osceola, Arkansas told The Wall Street Journal in 2006. Like many rural communities, Osceola, a town of about 7,000 in Northeast Arkansas’ Mississippi County, grew up around the agriculture industry. As farm employment declined, textile-manufacturing jobs grew but ultimately disappeared as the industry moved offshore. In 2001 Fruit of the Loom shut down its Osceola plant leaving 2,500 people unemployed and the community in a crisis. Not only was unemployment rampant, the school system was classified as academically distressed and faced a state takeover. But what a difference a few years and an all-out community effort can make! Today Osceola has a strong ...
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