In an effort to get more for their money and offer more than just recreation at Coahoma County Youth Outreach, Supervisors have dissolved the board and hired Billy Willis as a consultant for the organization.
Earlier this month members of the board came before the county and said there were problems with CCYO, the organization needed a new direction and asked the board be dissolved and help sought from Boys & Girls Club to both manage and fund the organization.
Kendrick Travis will remain as CCYO executive and focus on recreation. Willis will act as a liaison between Boys & Girls Club and CCYO, seeking to provide after-school help with homework, personal counseling and access to other social program for both kids and parents.
“It’s all about the kids and if you don’t keep your focus on what is best for the kids, the program loses its power,” said Willis. “CCYO is very important to this community and it has the potential to help a lot of kids in Coahoma County.”
Willis was influential in helping start CCYO and was hired away by Boys & Girls Club of Tunica County where he has been executive director for more than 20 years.
Willis pointed out Boys & Girls Club has access to funding and highly trained personnel who can do everything from help kids with school work to meet with parents to discuss the everyday problems of raising a teenager.
Board of Supervisors President Paul Pearson said both Travis and Willis will answer to supervisors.
“The way we had it set up the board handled most situations and came to us for funding,” said Pearson. “This board does not want to run CCYO but we do want CCYO.
“Both are good organizations and we just want to see them work together to help our kids,” said Pearson. “Coahoma County needs a place like CCYO.”
There has apparently been some friction between CCYO and Boys & Girls Club as CCYO allowed kids to be in their after-school program and play in the gym at the same time Boys and Girls Club was trying to get kids to do their homework. CCYO told those kids if they were registered with their organization and not Boys and Girls Club they didn’t have to study.
Both organizations require on kid count to receive funding. The facility at the Expo Building has about 250 kids using the program year round. The number goes up in the summer with league sports.
The county is also looking to turn the Coahoma County Youth Outreach over to the Boys and Girls Club. The county funds CCYO at around $450,000 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 has 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 now houses the local Boys & Girls Club. Boys & Girls Club has pulled out of Coahoma County before because of a lack of participation.
Boys & Girls Club executives told supervisors the county needs to help them get their numbers up or they will be forced to find another location.
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.
Boys and Girls Clubs of America has an annual budget of $233 million and served 4.3 million kids in 2017. 97% of Club teens expect to graduate from high school and 88% expect to complete some kind of post-secondary education.
The Community Foundation provided a grant from the Endowment for the Future of Northwest MS to establish a community garden and purchase additional equipment. The garden is still in the planning stage, interrupted by the 2016 spring flood. Youth are learning to grow plants from seed in a make-shift greenhouse and are planning for a large garden in the spring of 2017.
A local church provided funds for a state-of-the art playground and plans are under way for phase two of this project. The large area around the facility has a fishing pond and area for outdoor sports. The center has a newly installed basketball court and classrooms for study, dance, and fitness.
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