About Us

Jackson Resource Center is an inclusive campus. We do not discriminate, in admission to our Campus or provision of services, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, age or disability. We are also an equal opportunity employer. No Jackson Resource Center employee or prospective employee will be denied employment or a promotion because of his or her race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, age or national origin.

The Founder

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Putalamus White

Founder and CEO of the Jackson Resource Center, is a highly gifted, creative, and enthusiastic graphic artist, business developer and homeless advocate from Jackson, Mississippi. Putalamus graduated from Provine High School in Jackson, Mississippi, June 1992. There she held various leadership positions which included founding a peer-to-peer mentoring organization known as “Reality: 1 on 1”. While in attendance at Provine, Putalamus attended the Career Development Center during her sophomore and junior years and received her Certificate of Completion, which was then equivalent to an Associate Degree in Business Administration and Accounting. October 8, 1989, the day after she turned sixteen, Putalamus began working part time after school and on weekends at Sonic Drive-In. Before the anniversary of her first year on the job, she was promoted to Assistant Manager in the location she worked. In this position she was responsible for payroll, employee scheduling, daily and monthly inventory, creating reports and assisting in opening new stores. She was also responsible for training new employees and encouraging employee morale, and yes, she was still in high school, maintaining a “B+” average.

Vision

To see discarded individuals become strong, productive,
self-sufficient citizens that pay it forward and change the dynamics of the community in which they reside.

Mission

Our mission is to be a multifaceted housing organization devoted to utilizing collaborative partnerships (both on and off-site) to create sustainable communities across Jackson, Mississippi (Hinds County, Mississippi) through accessible affordable quality housing, continued education, job training, and a plethora of social and medical services.

Why JRC

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Helping Homeless

Homelessness is one of our nation’s most serious problems. While there are many causes of homelessness. One primary cause is the growing gap between housing costs and income. On any given night hundreds of individuals and families are homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless in Jackson, MS and although it is difficult to estimate the number of homeless people locally, over 2,000 homeless children were identified in the Jackson, MS public school system last year. It is estimated that thousands of people are homeless in Jackson, MS on any given night. The Jackson Resource Center has been and is a voice of those who are homeless in our community. As a non-profit, JRC has implemented and continues to update a Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Jackson, MS and will not stop until we are all working together as one body assisting those in need.

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Advocacy

The Jackson Resource Center is a voice for the homeless, advocating for their rights and a place they can call home. It plans to be a strong leader within the community by recommending policy changes to improve services for the homeless. It also identifies homeless strategies that can produce results, and gets the message out to the community for prompt rapid action. The Resource Center Policy and Legislative Committee brings issues forward and offers solutions. The Resource Center constantly monitors national, state and local legislation and news to distribute information through the center\’s communication network including the website and Social Media.

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Charity For Education

The Jackson Resource Center provides educational and awareness information to the community through events, social media and speaker’s bureau. All audiences are reached; from grade school through college, to civic and social groups, corporations and businesses. Through the Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau – homeless and formerly homeless speakers share their experiences to put a human face on the issue of homelessness.

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Sustainability

Fundraising and awareness events, volunteer opportunities, and news dissemination all support the goal of sustaining the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. Our fundraising strategy includes writing grants, private donor and foundation funding and most importantly support from our community members. Promoting and receiving support from community, individuals, local businesses, corporations and organizations large and small is essential to implementing the Ten-Year Plan. Without the support of the community at large, many families and individuals who are in immediate need of shelter and services, would not have the opportunity to end their homelessness.