Predatory financing disables low-wage workers. In Jackson and other Mississippi communities, low-wage earners' marginal economic status puts them at the mercy of payday loan companies and check cashing operations, title loan lenders and others in the "sub-prime" finance industry.

Foster care system drops children through the cracks. Children in foster care are physically abused and neglected. The system is under-funded and under-staffed. Children age out of the system with no jobs, no skills, no transition support. They are left without effective futures.

Lost in the court system. The courts do not work for poor people in many Mississippi jurisdictions. Any day in Mississippi you can go into courts of record and watch unrepresented people get lost. They cannot navigate the process without legal representation. They lose when they shouldn't. The court system is not effective in administrating the flow of pro se cases or providing attorney representation when it is needed.

Lost in the administrative system. Support services administered by the Mississippi Department of Human Services are not getting to the low-wage workers who are eligible for them. Regional administrators are not following DHS policies in providing child care, transportation, job training and other support services.

Voting rights of African Americans imperiled by new electoral barriers. The struggle to secure basic democratic rights of people of color is ongoing. Implementation of Mississippi legislation newly enacted to apply the federal Help America Vote Act must be vigilantly monitored, county by county, to guard against setbacks.

Substandard and unequal access to housing. Lack of access to adequate shelter remains one of Mississippi's most pressing social justice breakdowns. Community leaders in Jackson are pioneering promising new approaches to improving and expanding housing availability, and their successes need to be replicated in other communities.

Lack of access to health care creates health status disparities and avoidable costs. Most Mississippi communities exhibit severe health status disparities based on race and economic status, to the detriment of everyone in those communities. Communities around the country have made dramatic progress in eliminating such disparities, using approaches readily adaptable but as yet untried in Mississippi.

Exploitation of immigrant workers. Mirroring historic patterns of abuse of migrant farm workers, labor contractors are transporting immigrants from the borders of Texas and Florida to work in the poultry processing plants of east Mississippi and the catfish processing plants of the Mississippi Delta. These workers are housed in appallingly overcrowded and substandard housing and are subjected to abusive working conditions.

Low-income communities and communities of color lack access to risk-adjusted financing for small business startup. In most Mississippi counties, communities are missing out on job development opportunities because of the unavailability of risk-adjusted financing. Such financing could increase the availability of child care and transportation services essential for low-wage workers to maintain their fragile hold on employment.

Child care crisis confronts low-income families. The Mississippi Department of Human Services' administration of funding to child care providers poses discriminatory impediments to provider participation, to the detriment of low-income parents and their children.

State personnel procedures fail to protect low-wage state employees. Workers who attempt to redress discriminatory practices by state agencies are blocked by unfair procedural impediments. Opportunities for advancement even in public sector employment are effectively closed.