JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Moncrief is an area that frequently makes headlines for crime in Jacksonville. Just Wednesday night, there was a shooting on Effee Street in a park involving teenagers.
Just down the road from that shooting sits a hidden gem, ‘100 Stars Community Center.’
“They come from all schools over here and they just join together for one common cause and that is for them to develop solutions to negative statistics impacting peers like the shootings and those other kinds of things,” said Betty Seabrook Burney, I’m A Star Foundation.
I’m A Star Foundation and 100 Black Men of Jacksonville along with other organizations and council members opened the Moncrief center to offer STEM resources and activities for youth. It’s a way to keep kids active and out of trouble.
“We are just a little hidden jewel in here because when our young people come in here, they come in with the notion of, at first, not knowing what to expect, but then the next thing that they know, they’re leaving out leaders,” said Seabrook Burney.
The foundation offers Science, Math, Coding, Gardening and they teach Leadership skills in a 3,000 square foot building.
Right now, the center serves about 100 youth and they plan to open doors for other students this summer.
“They soon understand that some of the things they’ve seen on the outside doesn’t even have to come inside with them,” said Seabrook Burney.
City Council President, Terrance Freeman, pushed for the center’s opening back in 2019 after a fatal shooting at a Moncrief park.
“He pushed it through, we got it through and now children can come to a nice, clean, safe spot to get to where they need to be,” she said.
For more information on the ‘100 Stars Community Center,’ click here.