Program Summary

Building Rural Communities

SMHA's Building Rural Communities Program includes  several initiatives aimed at helping people in rural Louisiana build healthy and prosperous communities. The Louisiana Rural Home Loan Partnership makes it possible for low-wealth families to obtain loans to purchase or build a home -- thus building their assets. The Public Policy Leadership Institute works to increase community involvement, particularly among marginalized citizens in economically distressed areas. SMHA provides technical assistance to the Self-Help Associations -- to develop community-based leadership and empower families to envision and create a healthy and prosperous future. The Critical Difference Scholarship program awards scholarships to young people from the families of sugar cane workers in areas where SMHA works. Finally, SMHA recognizes that the sustainability of its work requires Youth Development and encourages a number of initiatives aimed at developing the next generation of leaders. Many of the programs that Southern Mutual has developed over the years to build healthy and prosperous rural communities and address life quality issues will be utilized and expanded as part of the Rural Recovery Response initiated to address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

More detailed information on our Building Rural Communities programs can be found on these pages of our web site:

• Louisiana Rural Home Loan Partnership
• Family and Community Development
• Homeowners' Association
• Building Assets Through Home Ownership
• Housing Report
• Public Policy Leadership Institute
• Self Help Associations
• Critical Difference Scholarships
• Youth Development

Hear it in their own voices! Go to the Parables to Policy Website.

Life Quality

SMHA's Life Quality Program focuses on long-term and sustainable development of communities, particularly of farmers and fishers whose economies are closely interdependent with our land, waters and other environmental assets. The program also includes all people within the Building Rural Communities Program , particularly very low-income families and communities who have partnered with SMHA to assist them in becoming first-time homeowners. All rural citizens have the right to a quality of life that makes them happy and should have opportunities to achieve their hopes and dreams. Life quality necessarily rests upon stewardship of people, possessions and property and knowledge of, as well as a voice in, the larger community. The Life Quality Program includes four initiatives which interface with the Building Rural Communities Program:

• Traditional Fishers in Transition
• Transitioning to Sustainable Agriculture
• Sustainable Communities
• Environmental Assets

Hear it in their own voices! Go to the Parables to Policy Website.

To Carry Out What We Believe We Need To Do For Communities, We Created An Internal Program Called From Founders to Future

Several years ago SMHA recognized the need to make the transition from an organization built around the strengths of its founders to one that can build on those strengths and the organization’s rich history and take the organization’s work to the next level. To assure that SMHA can have an even greater impact in the future and that SMHA will be a sustained presence that enables marginalized peoples, women and people of color to achieve a better quality of life, SMHA has an on-going and proactive strategic plan and program to build its institutional capacity, create an endowment, and continue to assure accountability. SMHA conducts extensive board and staff training and orientation. As a part of this process, SMHA instituted its Audit Finance Committee, is continuing to develop depth of leadership within the organization, and is institutionalizing its values of stewardship, appreciation, excellence, and life-long learning.

Click here to learn more about the Sister Anne Catherine Bizalion Endowment Fund.



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