05/13/2026
Last year, TREE and Josh McManus at M|B|P / Make Big Plans helped coordinate Jackson Rising, a 90-day citywide civic engagement and strategic planning initiative created in response to a new city administration taking office addressing the severe challenges of population decline, disinvestment, and fragmented civic coordination impacting Jackson, Mississippi.
The process brought together more than 300 nonprofit, business, community, philanthropic, and public sector leaders through more than 30 workshops organized around 14 focus areas. Together, participants generated more than 400 ideas and contributed over 1,000 hours of collective work toward a quick action plan for public-private partnership.
At its core, Jackson Rising is a simple idea: people working together to solve problems together. The initiative helped develop the Jackson Rising Framework Plan: A Civic Method for Leaders, Investment, and Action in Jackson, Mississippi. The plan captured priority ideas across 14 focus areas, including retaining and growing population in a shrinking city, improving public safety, fixing infrastructure, eliminating blight, growing the economy, strengthening public spaces, and advancing other shared priorities for the city’s future.
In addition to co-leading workshops, the work included extensive research and cartographic analysis, compiling previously developed plans and partner database, and building out a public storefront on Capitol Street to support engagement, coordination, and visibility.
Jackson Rising was supported by the Community Foundation for Mississippi, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the City of Jackson, Ray & Nancy Neilsen, Great City Mississippi Foundation, Trustmark Bank, and more than 10 additional local businesses and organizations. To learn more about Jackson Rising, follow and visit jxnrising.com.