Proud and Wowed! Hendersonville's Youth Get Served

Prepare to be impressed by what's happening in the space previously occupied by Crazy Lady Cafe, located at 121 W. Barnwell Street in Hendersonville.


Generation Y Youth Activity Center, sponsored by MyPlace, Inc. (scroll to bottom of linked page for interesting video), a nonprofit working toward positive youth development, has set up shop. Their Mission Statement:

“My Place” is a non-profit, transitional housing program for “unaccompanied” and homeless youth in Hendersonville, NC between the ages of 18 and 24. The comprehensive program incorporates counseling and support services, leadership development and parenting skills training, job/college readiness and placement support, and family re-integration where appropriate.

The Youth Activity Center space is big, but they haven't had a problem filling it with an amazing array of youth oriented services.

We're talking a Self-Paced Accredited High School (kids earn a diploma, not a GED), Walk-In Crisis Center, Generation Y (which encompasses a Recording Studio, Game Room, Fitness Center and Club Pulse), My Place Thrift Shop (benefits My Place and Generation Y) and Bubbalini's Diner/Restaurant (scroll to bottom of linked page to see video). It looks like they also have a radio program, Voices - Teen Talk Radio, planned.

(Window sign for Club Pulse)


(Bubbalini's Interior)
As of this writing, Bubbalini's is serving lunch, but might be serving breakfast, too. Call 828-458-1862 for current hours and to-go orders. Bubbalini's menu can be seen here.

The Hendersonville Times-News covered the opening of My Place in this "Kids Find a Place All Their Own" article.

The Generation Y Youth Activity Center has been a natural "next step" for Embracing Simplicity Hermitage, a Buddhist retreat and meditation center in Hendersonville that is also a new Henderson County-based shelter for homeless teens and young adults.

This June 1, 2009 Times-News article, "At-risk youth learn to garden" talks about two previously established My Place projects, Growing Healthy Together and Youth Build of WNC.

Youth participating in Growing Healthy Together "learn how to cultivate soil, grow and can vegetables, and develop some entrepreneurial skills to sell the veggies and flowers".

Youth Build of WNC's goal is to develop 16 townhouses that will be built by about 30 at-risk youth, ages 16 to 24. It will focus on helping My Place youth and others develop entrepreneurial skills and self reliance to build their independence.

Latest for My Place is My Place Produce. They've teamed with Anything Green Online to sell fresh produce online and in local grocery stores. The produce will carry a My Place label and be sold at competitive prices. A portion of each sale will be donated to My Place.

My Place is asking "1 million students with homes to help 1 million homeless students" by adding their name to those asking local grocery stores to carry My Place Produce.

PIC and I got to know some of these kids while helping them complete college Financial Aid forms at a local high school. They're awesome kids with so much to offer. All they need is a little help and it looks like Hendersonville is where they're going to get it.