Thank you for your interest in the Mississippi Delta Project! Please submit this completed form on or before SEPTEMBER 26th at 11:59 EST. Here is some more information about each of our teams' projects:

Economic Justice Initiative: The Economic Justice Initiative is set to begin in the 2021-2022 academic year. In close partnership with Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, the economic justice team will work on policy matters related to advocating for debt relief for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Environmental Justice Initiative: The Environmental Justice team works closely with the Mississippi Center for Justice. The team’s ultimate goal is to assist Mississippians, particularly those individuals located in rural and under-served communities, understand and advocate for their rights to clean drinking water and effective wastewater systems. We hope to help Mississippians utilize financial resources available to them to improve their water systems.The Spring 2021 team composed a policy paper and crafted a toolkit for Mississippians on the issues identified above. The 2021-2022 team will continue to work with the Mississippi Center for Justice on these projects to further identify issues of access to and distribution of funding for water infrastructure projects. The team will also develop policy recommendations, on these issues, to continue our fight for environmental justice in the Delta. This project will offer lots of opportunities for engagement with various stakeholders in Mississippi.

Food Justice Initiative: This school year, the Food Justice Team will conduct legal and policy research around Food-is-Medicine models, with the goal of creating instructional materials that the team's partner organizations can use to build out programs and advocate for policy changes that will ensure that low-income people have access to the healthy food that all people deserve. Our work will look to promote systemic change through community organizing and policy advocacy, to ensure being able to live a healthy life is not a class-based privilege. This is an extension of the team's work in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

Reproductive Justice Initiative: The Reproductive Justice Initiative seeks to advance reproductive rights, encourage access to quality healthcare, and support sexual health education. Since 2019, the Reproductive Justice Initiative has partnered with organizations in Mississippi to expand access to care and access to health education for all community members. In 2020, the RJI team drafted a sexual education policy scan, a legislative brief, and a one-pager for the Mississippi state legislature. Our work focused on legislative advocacy to encourage comprehensive sex education and youth-focused health education in public high schools. The Reproductive Justice Initiative is excited to continue our partnership with Teen Health Mississippi this year. The Initiative will work with our partner organization to focus on coalition building within the Mississippi community and with state legislators to support sex education across the state.