The Mexico Sustainability Project is an effort to stabilize Mexico's community and workforce.

Its combination of workforce initiatives and training has caught the attention of the state and will be recognized by ServeMO and the Department of Economic Development with a Show Me Service Award. The award ceremony will be held April 21 in the Capitol Rotunda from 1:30-3 p.m.

“It’s nice that we’re being recognized,” Dana Keller, Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, said.

But what would be nicer, she added, is if the state investigated the program further so it can expand into more communities.

“This is work that should be done all over the state,” Keller said. “There’s not a single area of our state that doesn’t need more dependable, reliable employees.”

A state-funded agency is something Keller hopes will come about, but she said Mexico couldn’t wait for such programs.

“We’ve been recognized nationally for this work, and it all just boils down to you,” she said. “You can’t wait for somebody else to do it, because they’re not coming to save you. You have to find your champions and get to work.”

Founded in 2018, the Mexico Sustainability Project is a board of volunteers dedicated to increasing stability as well as access to resources.

“We did a lot of different trainings with Aha Process,” Keller said. “Through Aha Process is where we learned about workplace stability – the book Workplace Stability — and the Getting Ahead in a Just-Gettin’-by World classes.”

While often confused with the Workforce Resource Assistance Program, the Mexico Sustainability Project primarily focuses on the “Getting Ahead” classes. It works hand-in-hand with WRAP, which is managed by the Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce as its workforce initiative.

“We just started down that path knowing that ultimately we would be able to expand MSP into having an ERN, which is an employee resource network, and we got a grant from the Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments, and that's how we started WRAP,” Keller said.

The impact of the Mexico Sustainability Project has been felt across the community in a number of ways. For example, Keller said graduates of Getting Ahead are seeking better jobs and becoming more reliable in those jobs, which translates into more stability for the whole family. This, in turn, benefits the schools because kids are coming from a more stable environment.

“People who’ve graduated from Getting Ahead, we have had them reach the point of stability where they’re buying homes, furthering degrees, some of them are becoming banked,” Keller said.

And the Getting Ahead classes have gained so much traction that Arthur Center Community Health, in collaboration with the Mexico Sustainability Project, will offer classes of its own in the spring.

“Bottom line, the root of instability is poverty,” Keller said. “We do what we have to do to stabilize the community for our workforce. It’s very hard — it’s very rewarding.”

A livestream of the ceremony will also be available at www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-show-me-service-awards-tickets-1984781935197?aff=oddtdtcreator