Board of Directors
Empowering individuals and families to help themselves by providing and linking them with services that include Restoration for those who are suffering from negative social and economic issues; Prevention for the ones who are at risk of facing those issues in the future with the desired result of improving our communities one family at a time. New Way Mississippi, Inc. has served approximately 500 individual and families since its establishment.
New Way Mississippi, Incorporated was founded in 1998 as a community action agency that reach out to at-risk men, women, children and families in both the rural and urban context. We believe that many of the problems that are presenting themselves in our society today can be traced back to lack of attention, support, encouragement, and accountability shown during vital stages of emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual development.
New Way Mississippi, Inc. is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the state of Mississippi, and is recognized as a 501(c) (3) charitable organization with the Internal Revenue Service. While the targeted population of New Way Mississippi, Inc. is composed of mainly minority families and youth due to the lack of targeted services like ours,
New Way Mississippi, Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, or national origin.
Hollis Watkins is the Founder and President of Southern Echo, Inc., a leadership development, education, training, and technical assistance organization dedicated to empowering local residents throughout Mississippi and the Southern region to make political, economic, educational, and environmental systems accountable to the needs and interests of the African-American community. Hollis has spent a lifetime in pursuit of racial justice in his home state. In 1961, at the age of 19, he was the firs
Frank Figgers currently serves as a Strategy Consultant for One Voice. The mission of One Voice is to enhance civic engagement in the formation of public policy through leadership development, research support, training and technical assistance for advocacy groups, associations, and community based organizations. Figgers comes to One Voice via the Algebra Project at Lanier High School in Jackson, MS. While with the Algebra Project, Figgers served as the Parent and Community Development Specialis
Lisa Brown Deer’s organizing and civic engagement experience has connected her to the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Her maternal grandmother, Edith Simmons Peters, was the NAACP secretary for the Walthall County Branch as well as a SNCC supporter during the early 1960s. It was that connection that also brought her to become a supporter and now board member of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Inc. She explains: “I look up to trailblazers like my grandmother, Brend
r Ms. Cynthia Dorsey Smith has been an active member of the Veteran’s board for more than six (6) years. During her tenure she has served as secretary, acting treasurer and on several committees. She brings an abundance of community organizing and program development experience to the board. A 1978 Tougaloo College graduate she has participated in lifelong learning, earning training certificates in chronic disease self-management, diabetes self- management and as a community health advisor.
Our Mission
New Way Mississippi, Incorporated was founded in 1998 as a community action agency that reach out to at-risk men, women, children and families in both the rural and urban context.
New Way Mississippi, Inc. has served approximately 500 individuals and families since its establishment.
Our Vision
New Way Mississippi believes that many of the problems that are presenting themselves in our society today can be traced back to lack of attention, support, encouragement, and accountability shown during vital stages of emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual development.