Webinar:
Ten Years Later: What It Takes to Build Lasting Community Change
Wednesday, October 7th at 1:00 pm ET
Most community initiatives begin with the hope that their impact will last. But once the grant ends, the final report is submitted, and the formal work concludes, there are few opportunities to return years later and ask:
What actually endured?
Nearly a decade ago, Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity worked with Community Science on an initiative designed to strengthen an intergenerational leadership pipeline, with youth and adult community members leading work on issues they cared about, from food access to environmental concerns.
Now, with the benefit of nearly ten years of hindsight, we are returning to that work to examine what lasted, what changed, and what became visible only with time.
Join Brandi Gilbert, PhD, Managing Director of Community Science; Romona Taylor Williams, Executive Director of Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity; and Mersie F. Watkins, youth organizer and research assistant with MCUP, for a candid conversation about the decisions, relationships, and early investments that shaped the initiative.
Together, they will explore questions such as:
- What helped community capacity take root?
- Which investments continued to matter years later?
- What supported youth and adult leadership beyond the original funding period?
- What can we see now that may not have been visible during the grant?
- What should funders, nonprofits, community leaders, and evaluators consider differently when designing initiatives for long-term impact?
This webinar is not simply a look back. It is an opportunity to use nearly a decade of experience to think more clearly about how community initiatives are designed today.
Participants will leave with practical ideas for investing in long-term community capacity, strengthening intergenerational leadership, recognizing the conditions that help change endure, and measuring what matters beyond the life of a grant.
Join us for a conversation about what time can reveal—and what nearly ten years of hindsight can teach us about building change that lasts. Register below.
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Your Host
Brandi Gilbert, PhD
Managing Director, Community Science
Brandi brings expertise in research, evaluation, and strategic learning to initiatives that strengthen communities, expand opportunity, and advance systems change. She leads Community Science’s Youth Engagement and Leadership Practice Area and works with foundations, nonprofits, public agencies, and cross-sector networks to generate actionable evidence and translate learning into stronger strategy and practice. Her work spans youth development and engagement, economic mobility, community change, and the broader systems and conditions that shape opportunity and well-being.
Your Panel
Mersie F. Watkins, PhD Candidate, Environmental Science
Jackson State University
Mersie serves as a youth organizer and research assistant with Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity, where she supports community-based environmental justice efforts. A native of Duck Hill, Mississippi, Mersie has been involved with the organization since she was 12, beginning through its Creek Rangers youth program. Her experience also includes work with Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 Environmental Justice Section, and the Highlander Education and Research Center. Her work centers on youth engagement, environmental justice, community sustainability, and elevating the perspectives of rural communities.
Roma Taylor Williams
Executive Director, Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity
Romona is a community and economic development practitioner with 30 years of experience working with predominantly African American communities. She currently leads Mississippi Communities United for Prosperity, where she oversees the Achieving Sustainability through Education and Economic Development Solutions model. The model has received national recognition for helping address decades of flooding in Duck Hill, Mississippi, through green and gray infrastructure and the Creek Rangers program, which prepares young people ages 8–18 to become environmental stewards through science, math, art, reading, and technology.
Romona’s commitment to economic, environmental, and social justice has shaped her work to equip historically under-resourced communities with the tools and resources for community members to thrive. Her experience includes community and economic development, affordable housing and finance, climate change, environmental health, and sustainability planning. Before joining MCUP, she served as director of communications and development for Southern Echo.