The Boys & Girls Club of the Mississippi Delta will be leaving Clarksdale and Coahoma County this fall.
In a July letter to the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors, the club said they would discontinue their partnership and programing with the Coahoma County Youth Opportunity Center.
David Dallas, with Boys and Girls Clubs said the organization has been unable to serve children and families in person since March 2020, but did work with them virtually and conducted wellness checks on the family. The closing of CCYO this spring prevented Boys and Girls Club from planning for and offering summer programming related to reading and math and sports this summer.
Dallas said Boys and Girls Club would like the county’s continued support but at a new location in Coahoma County. Supervisors will begin hammering out their budget for 2021-22 later this month.
“We will find another location to accommodate the needs of our members and our organization,” said Dallas. “We hope to work in partnership with CCYOC in some future capacity to serve the youth. We thank you again for your support and again ask that the Board of Supervisors continue to support our efforts to serve the children and families of Coahoma County.”
Differences in serving youth surfaced in September 2019 when Boys & Girls Club saw CCYO focus on recreation rather than Boys & Girls Club’s desire to provide after-school help with homework, personal counseling and access to other social program for both kids and parents.
Both organizations require on kid count to receive funding. The facility at the Expo Building had about 250 kids using the program year round prior to COVID.
The county funds CCYO at around $170,673 a year. The Expo Center’s location in Clarksdale has city kids using the program but the city does not provide any funding.
CCYO was created by the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors in 2012 as a community recreation and enrichment program. In the first three years of operations, CCYO provided after-school and summer activities including health and wellness, arts, recreational, dance, and computer technology.
The 40,000 sq. ft. former agricultural exposition center was converted into a community recreation and enrichment center and housed the local Boys & Girls Club. Boys & Girls Club has pulled out of Coahoma County before because of a lack of participation and local support.
Seventy-six percent of low-income Club members ages 12 to 18 who attend the Club regularly reported receiving mostly As and Bs, compared to 67-percent of their peers nationally.
In a typical year, Boys & Girls Clubs serve 4.3 million young people – 2 million through membership and 2.3 million through community outreach – in more than 4,700 Club facilities in all 50 states.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America had its beginnings in 1860 with three women in Hartford, Conn. Believing that boys who roamed the streets should have a positive alternative, they organized the first Club. With character development as the cornerstone of the experience, the Club focused on capturing boys’ interests, improving their behavior and increasing their personal expectations and goals.
