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Producing successful citizens remains the goal of Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi.
At seven branches, volunteers serve 2,700 children and teens across metro Jackson. Support from United Way of the Capital Area generates $20,000 to $25,000 each year to assist the non-profit. Its roots in Jackson date back to 1936.
Activities for needy kids happen at after-school programs and during the summers. United Way campaigns at workplaces like Mississippi College, enrich their lives.
United Way contributions are essential to the cause – “they are the beacons of the community,” says Penney Ainsworth, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi. “Their dollars serve our youth.”
Funds from United Way sharply reduce costs for parents with children attending Boys and Girls Clubs. Parents end up paying about $25 per month for the services.
Year-round, hundreds of children are served meals and snacks each day after school. The kids are teamed with volunteers who help with homework, serve as mentors, develop their character, teach them how to manage money, and steer them towards careers. Children enrolled in Boys and Girls Clubs range between ages six and eighteen.
Ainsworth devoted more than two decades as a professional with Boys and Girls Clubs in Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia and Kansas City.
Why did the Mississippian get involved with the non-profit over 20 years ago? “I want to make a difference in the life of a child,” Penney says. That remains true today.
A graduate of Norfolk State University with a master’s in social work, Ainsworth also stays busy as a mom with four children of her own.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi are pretty effective at what they are doing at area locations, including a camp in rural Copiah County.
An estimated 78 percent of the youth graduating from Boys and Girls Clubs in the region pursue college or a post-secondary plan, including the military. Nearly 700 students comprise the average daily attendance in the Jackson metro area. And the number grows to 980 boys and girls during the summer months.
Mississippi College faculty and staff dollars going to United Way represent one avenue to help the cause. MC employees seek to raise $25,000 this Fall to benefit more than 30 agencies, including the 4C’s in Clinton, Magnolia Speech School and Girl Scouts. So far, the effort on the Clinton campus and MC Law School in Jackson reached $17,226 in mid-November. Less than $8,000 is needed to reach the goal.
The Christian university is partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs in other ways. Students remain a wonderful resource as volunteers. Members of MC Choctaws volleyball, basketball, and football teams are just a few of the squads on the Clinton campus providing a boost.
United Way of the Capital Area raised more than $2.2 million last year. The MC campaign this year targeting 550 employees is making a difference in the lives of people of all ages.
A United Way leader since 1993, MC President Lee Royce serves on the area’s United Way board. He’s actively pushed MC drives since arriving at the Baptist-affiliated university in 2002.
“MC under Dr. Royce’s leadership has just been spectacular,” says Carol Burger, president of the United Way of the Capital Area. In the region, Mississippi College she noted, leads all higher education institutions in United Way giving.
For more information, about United Way, contact MC Community Service Center director Shari Barnes at 601-925-3267 or English professor Susan Lassiter at 601-925-3332.
Photo: Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi
