Visions Service Adventures

The setting for VISIONS Mississippi is best captured in this September 2005 press release of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:

North Gulfport and Turkey Creek are communities rooted in African American history. Purchased and settled by a group of recently emancipated African Americans in 1866, the few acres of land later known as Turkey Creek was a vibrant, self-sufficient neighborhood, replete with farms, homesteads and the first African American school in the Gulfport region. In the early 1900s, North Gulfport and Turkey Creek also served as refuges for African Americans that were banned from Gulfport's local beaches due to the growth of lucrative resort development. At the time that Katrina struck, North Gulfport and Turkey Creek were the sites of numerous historic homes and minority businesses. Community groups and residents have been working hard to obtain historic preservation status and build affordable housing. Now, the communities are fighting to survive.

Since 2006 in partnerships with the North Gulfport Land Trust, Audubon Mississippi, and Turkey Creek Community Initiatives VISIONS participants have accomplished impressive service. This includes construction of a 600 sq. ft. outdoor environmental classroom; fishing decks and a 50' arched wooden walking bridge over a Turkey Creek tributary that eases access to community green space and a neglected waterway that was once the setting for Saturday fishing contests and Sunday baptisms. Last summer participants built a wildlife observation deck 6 ft. above ground with attached handicap ramp. We created and painted community murals with the North Gulfport Youth Council. We have distributed health and social services information throughout the community, volunteered at the Isaiah Fredericks Senior Center, planted trees and more.

Of course, it's never all work in Mississippi. A spontaneous invitation to Flower's family reunion, complete with his famous fried catfish. Mark LaSalle's irresistible Cajun hospitality and keen Audubon wisdom and a Moss Point barbeque with live music and tall Southern tales. Rose Johnson's fearless and determined advocacy for her home neighborhoods. Derrick Evans' compelling accounts of Turkey Creek's strategic historic place as a major watershed wetland. [In October 2006 Robert Kennedy Jr., stood in the outdoor classroom that VISIONS built three months earlier and named Mississippi's first Waterkeeper as part of The Waterkeeper Alliance, a national advocacy group dedicated to preserving and protecting community waters.] You'll fish on the bayou, take a flatboat spin to try crabbing, spend a long day and evening in New Orleans, explore Shipp and Dauphin Islands, and the lush coastal backwoods by canoe.