North Greenville Community Development Corporation

Challenges for Working Families

With the current state of the economy, working families everywhere are struggling. Between rising costs of food, gas, and housing, and the mortgage foreclosure crisis, it is getting harder and harder for folks to get by. Workers in the Mississippi Delta are also struggling with a bad job market. Plants are closing, people are losing their jobs, and there is not enough work to go around.

In the face of these challenges, the North Greenville Community Development Corporation (NGCDC) in Greenville, Mississippi is helping. Through a variety of programs, they are helping struggling families to get their feet back under them by providing services and teaching skills that low-income people can use to build themselves up.

NGCDC’s Programs

The town of Greenville, MS

Located in a town of 50,000 in the heart of a rural area in Mississippi, North Greenville Community Development Corporation, founded in 1997, serves a largely rural population. Although the population is smaller than that of an urban center, there is still a great deal of need in the community and surrounding area. Even a small program like the NGCDC, which only employs two people full time, is able to make a big difference. The services they offer include providing low-income housing, a farming project with the Children’s Defense Fund called Women in Agriculture, a Welfare to Work program through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), various community projects run through a volunteer model similar to Habitat for Humanity’s. One of these community projects involves teaching a group of women to make minor, and some major, repairs to homes. Skills like these can save clients hundreds or even thousands of dollars. In the last few years, the organization has also become a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site that conducts free tax preparation. Through the services that North Greenville Community Development Corporation offers, they are able to reach hundreds of low-income people in the surrounding area.

North Greenville
(caption) The town of Greenville, MS

A New Way to Help - Free Tax Preparation

Before tax season began in 2004, the Children’s Defense Fund approached the NGCDC and asked if they would be interested in starting a free tax preparation program. Hope Davenport and Sylvia Franklin, the two employees at the NGCDC, had seen the advertisements for paid tax preparation and quick refund loans, and were already concerned about their low-income clients paying hundreds of dollars that they do not have for a service that only takes 15 or 20 minutes. Recognizing the need in their community, they agreed to open a VITA site in 2004.

Even though only their two full-time staffers are certified to prepare returns, and they have no volunteer tax preparers, the VITA program has grown tremendously in the succeeding years. In 2004, Hope and Sylvia prepared 23 returns. In 2005, they challenged themselves to complete 50 returns, and easily met that goal. In 2008, aided by the president’s Economic Stimulus Package, they completed well over 200 returns between the two of them. The 2008 growth has been in part due to a partnership with the local Social Security office to make sure that the elderly community is served and does not miss out on their Economic Stimulus Payments.

In fact, their VITA program has thrived so well that the NGCDC sees it as one of its most successful programs ever. Through the VITA program, they are able to reach across color lines to serve a diverse clientele comprising all races, ethnicities, and ages. This year’s Economic Stimulus Payments have also introduced a whole new group of customers to NGCDC’s VITA services. This year, they have worked with elderly and handicapped clients that perhaps would never have sought out their services otherwise.

The Need for Financial Education

One major need that Hope and Sylvia see, especially with their tax clients, is for financial education. When they ask their clients what they will use their tax refunds for, most clients report that the money has already been spent. Hope and Sylvia also find that many of their clients do not have bank accounts, or any money saved, and are mired in debt. To help alleviate these problems, NGCDC has partnered with a local bank, Jefferson Bank, to offer low-cost bank accounts to their tax clients. They are also building a partnership with a local credit union to provide bank accounts. In addition, they are working with the Children’s Defense Fund and the IRS to develop a structured financial education program for their clients.

Client Stories

One advantage of a small program with two staff members is that Hope and Sylvia get a chance to know their clients and see the difference that NGCDC makes in their lives. Two of the clients they serve through their VITA program are elderly sisters. The two women, both over 80, have been coming to NGCDC to have their taxes prepared every year. By saving the money they would spend on tax preparation, they are able to better manage their expenses. Even though they still have to pay in every year, the amount they pay in is the same as the amount they used to pay in tax preparation fees, so their tax time expenses have been cut in half, thanks to NGCDC. Hope and Sylvia have also worked with another young client through their tax program who has been able to use the money she saves on tax preparation fees, plus the money she gets back in her refund, to start a business. It is successes like these that show the impact an organization like North Greenville Community Development Corporation can have in a small rural community.