Let me start at the beginning:

My name is Tracy Morris and I've lived in Person County all my life. I love my hometown and how it is the “country small town” just North of Durham. I've always wanted to open a Youth or Recreational Center here - I even shared this dream with my husband 16 years ago. I used to pass by an old warehouse and imagine how it could be used, but recently, I lost hope when the building was renovated and leased out. I lacked the confidence to pursue my dream, especially because of the negative feedback I could have received. Then, my daughter-in-law, Sam, encouraged me and offered to help since she works and goes to college part-time. This is how Person County Youth Connect started.

My ultimate goal with this youth center will provide more, eventually, than many other youth centers I have encountered. Therefore, I am expecting this to be a huge endeavor. However, at the current time, we are starting with a facility that caters to kids ages 5 and up. I want to provide these children and their families support in a safe, fun, and welcoming environment. Some of the services I want to provide them are: Enrichment classes, Emotional/Mental Support, Personal Development & Character Building, Trade Skills, Field Trips, Volunteer Opportunities, Transportation, and Meals/Snacks.

Eventually, I’d love to have a full time care facility for childcare for ages 0-18, but that will be a larger venture a little bit down the road. I want to provide these services with extended hours for those parents who work late, weekends, and on holidays. This would provide parents somewhere to allow their kids to hang out, learn, and just be kids while they run errands, work, go to school, etc. We do, also, even plan on having a medical professional that can administer medications or help with any medical emergencies, as needed.

In order to fund this operation, we will be looking to rely on donations from our community - that would be business and individuals, sponsorships, partnerships, grants, fundraisers, and minimal membership fees. Hopefully, we can get funding from other places to help our membership fees be lower or offer hardship scholarships. We will have large expenses as a non-profit youth center. Those expenses would include, administrative costs, supplies, equipment, furniture, location, food and nutrition, transportation, etc.

We seem to have gained a lot of community support from Person County with our Facebook group "Person County Youth Connect Planning", which consists of members of the community who are voicing their opinions and voting on what they want to see in the community. We are doing, and plan to continue doing, polls with the community to see the types of things that they would like to see. They have already picked our name, motto, and logo! I believe this page was the perfect way to reach out to a community in this technological age to get their feedback and support.

I can’t wait to continue this adventure with the whole community, learning, growing, and collaborating, to make this as successful as possible!

At Person County Youth Connect - we are Connecting for a Brighter Future!