Jackson Free Press

Upon arriving at Kristi Hendrix's office, it's hard to remember I'm not visiting her home. Two Magnolia trees perfect for climbing linger in the front yard of the old house on Adelle Street in midtown Jackson. Inside the house, a collection of trophies from Good Samaritan's "Some Like It Hot" Chili Cook-off are displayed next to pictures of community and family members that sit on the top of the home's fire places.

It feels like home, and that's exactly how Hendrix, the executive director of North Midtown Community Development Corp., wants midtown Jackson to feel to its residents. Since coming to work at Good Samaritan Midtown almost three years ago from Philadelphia, Miss., where she served as the director of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians' early head start director, Hendrix has been carrying out that vision.

When Hendrix, 39, arrived at Good Samaritan, a nonprofit that serves families in crisis, services included a Montessori daycare for children and a Meals on Wheels program that served seniors in midtown. Under Hendrix's leadership, the center has expanded the daycare and the Meals on Wheels program. Also Good Samaritan has achieved certification for Excel By 5, a community-based program that supports young children from birth to age 5, in addition to its afterschool program.

Hendrix has been busy with the June 1 merger of Good Samaritan Midtown and North Midtown Community Development Corp. Through the merger, it will be able to expand services to include work-force and job-skill training and job placement for families.

"It allows us not only to focus on education, but now we're focusing on work force development. We've just added the whole community and economic development piece, so now we control housing in the area ... (I)t gives us the ability to control a lot of those variables are sometimes not within your reach," says Hendrix, who has a bachelor's and a doctorate in educational leadership from Ole Miss and a master's in counseling from Mississippi State.

"We could potentially be serving three different generations within one household," adds Hendrix, who lives in Madison with her husband, John, and two children, Tanner and Anna Jordan.

Just inside the door of the Adelle Street office, hangs a map of midtown Jackson---speckled with different colors, representing the condition of different houses in the neighborhood. While many houses appear in good condition, there is a way to go with several homes still in need of repair.

Hendrix explains that midtown is important to Jackson.

"It's important because it is the heart of Jackson ... and I think we're sitting prime to really prosper in this area, because we're so close to so many resources. And I think it's important to the state as well, because I think midtown can really be a sign of turnaround," she says.