Making Connections

Enjoying the blocks in the pre-school area are, from left, Rakendrick Stanton, Susan Geiger, Kennesha Stanton, Kenmekia Stanton, Tiara Mangum, Dr. Ray Phelps, Barquita Stanton and Ashley Stubbs.

Millsaps students make connections
for the future at Bethlehem Center

“Making Connections” is one of several programs Millsaps students have taken on as part of the College’s Faith & Work Initiative. Bethlehem Center, a United Methodist agency serving children and families in the Midtown area of Jackson, was selected by MBA students Greg Cronin, Susan Geiger and Charles McPherson for an in-depth study of the agency’s needs and goals. The students completed a strategic analysis of the center and presented their findings to the Board of Directors at their December meeting.

The study assisted administrators and volunteers at Bethlehem
Center in looking at where they want to go, determining their mission for the agency, looking at how they choose to work with
each other and the community, and making some decisions as
to what they must do very well in order to be successful. The Center also looked at its opportunities and threats in the community, its strengths and weaknesses as a mission agency, and at the major tasks before them, such as fund raising, setting goals, and measuring their success.

Key areas of focus from the study included reviewing the Center’s Mission to promote child and family self-sufficiency through programs, advocacy and access to resources. The Millsaps students made recommendations for streamlining the Center’s operations and services to coincide with its mission. In addition, the report made suggestions for redefining roles and responsibilities of staff and the Board, and raising the visibility of Bethlehem Center in the Jackson community. They also encouraged the Center to begin work on a visioning statement that express what it wants to be in the future.

"For the past seven years, Bethlehem Center has been healing and rebuilding,” Director Rev. Sherry Johnson said. “The Millsaps Field Study Team is an important element in that redemptive process. Their information helps us to live out our mission of encouraging self-sufficiency in children and parents; to make quality improvements in our programs; and to assist us in leveraging funds.”

Rev. Johnson cited the following kinds of knowledge which the Millsaps team brought to the center: knowledge about other agencies in the area and their services and funders; knowledge
of a greater variety of evaluation/assessment measures to help
them gauge their effectiveness; knowledge that the parents surveyed affirm the Center’s loving and safe environment for their
children; knowledge of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. “We know what direction to go in public relations, and we know how to base our future marketing,” she said.

Lenell Hayes and Devonte Mangum, at left, and Oscar Curtis at right teach Greg Cronin the fine art of playing Scrabble.