В бывшей школе Южной Джексона открыли центр устойчивости и возможностей для жителей

South Jackson neighbors celebrate new resilience hub at former school A former Jackson public school, closed for over five years, has been repurposed into a resilience hub and opportunity center, offering new resources to the South Jackson community South Jackson residents are celebrating the transformation of a long-closed school into an opportunity center, bringing new life to the community. "Wherever we hear we can help, we try to help. Who wouldn’t try to help?" said Terry Pitts, a neighbor. Pitts plans to make donations to the South Jackson Resilience Hub and Opportunity Center, which was formerly Marshall Elementary School. The school, closed for more than five years, has been revitalized by the nonprofit organization One Voice. "To even acquire the property, it took maybe seven or eight months," said Jhai Keaton, with One Voice. Marshall Elementary was one of 17 vacant Jackson Public Schools properties the district aimed to repurpose. Renovations began in January, and the auditorium, cafeteria, and kitchen have already been completed. "The kitchen will be turned into a workforce kitchen for those people who have culinary interest, and they might cook at home, but they need a commercial kitchen to cook in, as well as teaching cooking classes," Keaton said. Marshall Elementary is one of two properties sold by the district as part of its repurposing initiative. Keaton said the project could serve as an example for other unsold schools. "We say all the time that we hope that this project could be used as a model for other schools' repurposes or what they call adaptive reuse," Keaton said. Pitts, who lives near the space and worked as a librarian at Marshall Elementary for nine years before it closed, expressed her gratitude for the school’s new purpose. "We were really excited when we found out they were going to put a neighborhood center here because this area desperately needs a neighborhood center," Pitts said. This marks the completion of phase one of the project. In the final phase, phase three, plans include adding a clinic and dormitories for emergency shelter.