Project
West Memphis Community Development Consulting
Funder: City of West Memphis
Project Timeline: May 15, 2025 - May 31, 2028
Country: United States
Program Areas: Domestic Programs and Human & Community Development
Contacts: Jordyn Schneider, jordyn.williams@winrock.org; Jaylin Sprout, jaylin.sprout@winrock.org and Elizabeth Gomez, elizabeth.gomez@winrock.org
Winrock International is partnering with the city of West Memphis, Arkansas, to help the city translate Google’s recent $4 billion data center investments into long-term community transformation, job creation and economic growth. The project is expected to employ an estimated 750 people annually during the construction period, with around 250 permanent employees needed for data center operations.
To help city and community leaders leverage the largest private investment in Arkansas’s history for local transformation, Winrock will work with city leaders and local stakeholders to strategically prioritize, plan and implement community development initiatives. Assistance includes supporting the development of strategies for growth and quality of life improvement, community engagement and impact evaluation.
Winrock will provide skill-building support and training to strategically maximize the impact of Google’s data center. With the goal of ensuring long-term sustainability of community development initiatives, Winrock will guide community engagement efforts throughout the planning process and will support integration of community feedback into project design.
Community Development Consulting Service Model:
Winrock offers a comprehensive community development consulting service designed to assist a client from vision-setting to project implementation. Services are typically provided in phases over the course of three years with the ability to tailor or add services based on the client’s needs. Phases build on each other and are designed to increase client capacity to sustain community development initiatives for the long-term. This model uses both top-down and bottom-up approaches to community development; skills and knowledge of the client are built while input from the community is incorporated.
