Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian StarErica Turner leads students in a game of Mix and Mingle as part of the group's physical activities at the Velma Young Community Center.

For older students and teens — along with other members of the community — a new structure has come to life right around the 2400 block of 16th Avenue in Meridian.

Its formal name is a long one, reflecting its various contributors: The City of Meridian Boys & Girls Club Velma Young Community Center.

The center has given the tweens and teens of the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi a place of their own, and it has freed up space in the main Boys & Girls Club center, on 1717 45th Ave., for more members. The ribbon-cutting for the new building was in September, and now it’s simmering with activity.

Ricky Hood, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi, said members of the Boys & Girls Club in sixth through 12th grade are coming to the new building. Those older students used to go to the main Boys & Girls Club center on 45th Avenue, he said, sharing space with younger members.

And that, he explained, is one of the key ways in which the new Velma Young Community Center shines:  It gives the older students from the Boys & Girls Club a place that, for a solid portion of the day, is focused on them. With the school year in motion, club members meet at the center during weekday afternoons.

Younger children in the Boys & Girls Club, from kindergarten through fifth grade, continue to go to the older Velma Young Center — in the same neighborhood as the new center, and close to Magnolia Middle School.

The new $2 million facility was created with grant money as well as funding contributed by Lauderdale County, the City of Meridian and the Meridian Housing Authority, Hood said. In addition to the programming the club is presenting, the city is offering a seated exercise program and is planning a GED program, said Aleasha Jordan, director of operations for the Meridian Parks and Recreation Department. Hood noted that the city has opened the building for other valuable public uses, as well.

 “It’s good for this area because it was totally under-served,” Hood said.

A place of their own

Hood emphasized the importance of a gathering place for older students, including teenagers, who can pursue activities crafted especially for them.

“That’s the way you can keep older kids involved,” he said. “They need their own space.”

And it’s a space, explained Whitney Hood, where older children and teens can feel belonging. Whitney Hood is the teen director of the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi.

“It’s about giving them that sense of belonging, that family atmosphere,” said Whitney Hood, the daughter of Ricky Hood.

Whitney Hood explained the way the club can provide a kind of magnet for children who might be tempted to look elsewhere for excitement.

“It’s letting them know, ‘You are special, no matter where you come from,’” she said. “That’s a big thing — letting them know that they don’t have to go that (negative) route, that there are positive things in this community.”

About 200 students are coming to the new center, part of about 700 children coming to the entire Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi, said Linda Lavalais, resource development director and school liaison for Boys & Girls Club of East Club Mississippi.

A sense of connection

Whitney Hood described small but important touches that let the older students feel a sense of belonging at the new Velma Young Community Center. She understands the powerful forces pulling children in various when they approach and enter their teens, and when they seem to age out of the very word “children.” She described, too, the way feelings of anonymity can cause pain and explained how the Boys & Girls Club can address those feelings.

“One of the main things that we take pride in is knowing their names,” Whitney Hood said. “When they come to Boys & Girls Club, we say, ‘Hello, how was your day?’ We may have some kids who go through the school all day, and nobody says anything to them.”

Whitney Hood said she gives fist bumps or hugs to all the students to make them feel at home.

She also noted a number of programs offered at the new center, such as Keystone Club, designed for older students, including teens, who can take more control over their activities than younger children do.

“They create different activities that they like to do,” she said.

Keystone Clubs, according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America website, “provide leadership development opportunities for young people ages 14 to 18” with activities focusing on “academic success, career preparation and community service.”

Whitney Hood said Meridian teens in the Keystone Club may, in the future, visit other buildings to mentor younger children. And she mentioned a variety of other programs, too, such as the Boys & Girls Club “Youth of the Year” leadership development program, also for older students. (A “Junior Youth of the Year” program exists, as well.)

On any given afternoon, Boys & Girls Club members can be found engaged in activities centered on art, social issues, sports, school work and a variety of other group-based pursuits.

Rodney Hood said the programs are similar to those that had been offered to the older students when they were at the main center, but the new location and the added space, he said, make a significant difference — especially in a neighborhood that needs the attention.

“The need is so great in this area,” he said. “It’s unreal how much difference it’s already made.”

Sparkling and new

The students coming to the new center agreed. They enjoyed having space of their own, and they also savored the newness of the place.

“I like it here,” said Christopher Morton, a sixth-grader at Magnolia Middle School. “We’ve got our own space. I like doing homework.”

The young man also said he liked the large gymnasium and the building’s other amenities.

“The bathrooms are like restaurant bathrooms,” he said with great enthusiasm.

That may sound like a small detail, acknowledged Jermaine Harris, the director of operations for the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi. But it’s a detail that can let children know they’re cared for — especially if they live in a neighborhood where resources have been scarce.

“When kids get a chance to be part of something new, it’s priceless for them,” Harris said. “It’s like giving them a gift at Christmas. When they open it up and it’s new, they’re excited and happy. They’re getting a chance to enjoy something that they can call their own.”

Asia Clark, an eighth-grader at Northwest Middle School, also praised the new building.

“I just like experiencing the new things — and how everything is fixed over here,” she said.

D’Onte Brown, a Magnolia Middle School sixth grader, said he likes “making new friends, playing basketball, doing my work — I just like to come.”

The personal connections staff members make with students such as these are crucial, suggested Erica Turner, a club staff member who works as a teen leader.

“We just try to do things to keep them coming back, letting them know that we do love them,” she said. “They can trust us. We’re not trying to take the place of any mom or dad or grandmother — just being someone else that they can look up to and come and talk to.”

Turner noted the importance of location.

“As kids come from school, walking up and down, sometimes we send kids out to actually recruit,” she said. “(Other children) may hear music, and they’re not used to seeing (activity) here … At the end of the day, it just saves lives.”

Once the older children spend time at the center, she said, they discover it’s not “just for little kids.”

“We play games, and we do things they’re interested in doing,” Turner said.

Stephanie Mosley, also a staff member who works as a teen leader, noted that there’s a better chance for students to engage in wide ranges of activities — and not just sports — at the new center.

“Here we have plenty of space where the kids can go play,” she said. “We can be creative over here because we have so much more space.”

And that space, finally, extends outside of the club and even outside of Meridian, explained Whitney Hood. She noted the importance of trips to college campuses for the older students, along with other excursions beyond the city and beyond the state.

“It’s a whole world out there that they have not experienced,” she said, “but if we show them, then maybe we’ll see some kind of difference in how they see their community, and in how they can help it.”

People seeking more information about the Boys & Girls Club of East Mississippi can call 601-482-2544.