The Oseola McCarty Youth Development Center provides young people with the support they need to achieve success. Beginning as an afterschool and summer program for children in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2003, its remit has since expanded to include senior citizens, many of whom are their grandchildren’s main carers. Based in the low-income east Hattiesburg area, the center provides for the pressing needs of the community while advocating for families in meetings with the city. As well as running a month-long summer camp where children learn about urban farming in the community garden, the center organizes an annual toy collection, helps households obtain vouchers for fresh produce, and delivers food boxes to housebound senior citizens. “We’re in a food desert,” says executive director, Janet Baldwin. “Seniors depend on that box and they’re very appreciated. I get a letter every month from a homebound senior thanking me.” The center acts as a resource hub, connecting families with vital support.
Volunteers working in the East Jerusalem neighborhood garden.
The center has 15 regular volunteers in its core but relies on a wider pool for its events. Baldwin, who is also from the local area, is proud to note that many of those who attended the center as children now volunteer. Baldwin was active in the successful campaign for an overpass, which finally opened in 2024, to link the east to the rest of the city. “We’ve been segregated by train tracks, which separated us from medical facilities. In emergency situations, if trains were on the tracks, we had to drive in the opposite direction,” Baldwin says. Harnessing its ties to local businesses, the center’s Christmas toy drive last year collected gifts for nearly 4,000 children. The center also recently applied for an Environmental Protection Agency community change grant. If awarded, the fund would provide hydropanels for the center, which lacks safe drinking water, expand the garden, and construct a climate shelter for the city’s rising homeless population.
Children at the center’s summer camp participating in a pop-up business event.