For Angela Turner, it’s about using her position to help others live better.

A Vicksburg native, Turner is the city’s housing coordinator; a job that involves working with residents and other agencies to help someone get their home repaired or take the steps to buy their first home.

She returned to Vicksburg in 2007 after working with NASA in Houston Texas, because she wanted to do more with her life.

She also wanted to pursue her dream of developing senior housing on family land she had in the county.

“When I was at NASA, I enjoyed working there,” she said. “It was a beautiful place; it was like

a college campus, but I just felt I needed to do more to help people. I went from working with computers to working with people.”

She initially applied for the housing coordinator’s position with the city when it became vacant, “But at the time, they weren’t ready to fill it. So I thought I’d take something to get my foot in the door.”

That something was the Vicksburg Police Department’s community resource officer, “because it was public service, and that’s what I like to do. I didn’t think I was going to have to wear a uniform.”

As the department’s resource officer, Turner worked with neighborhood watch programs, coordinated the National Night Out Against Crime, the Walk Against Crime and mentored students at Grove Street School. She also went to senior citizen housing developments and made IDs for the residents.

“I worked with United Way agencies, “ she said. “Anything where they needed to have the police involved. I was the contact person for that.”

Turner became city housing coordinator in 2014.

One of the things that inspired her to take the position was her experience with the police department.

“Working at the police department, I would go visit people around the city, and I just saw so many people who needed help,” she said. “ I knew if I worked in housing, I could find a way to help them.”

Much of Turner’s work involves writing grants for money to help senior citizens and low-income resident renovate and repair their homes.

“I never thought I would be a grant writer, but here I am,” she said. “We also have Our Brother’s Keeper Program, where we have volunteers to help those who don’t qualify for a grant or if the grant money has run out.

“We get materials donated from contractors or anyone who wants to help the elderly get their homes repaired,” she said. “I also help teach a homebuyer education class and we teach the process from start to finish on buying a home.”

She said the program is also involved with the community garden on East Avenue, which teaches the first time homebuyers to grow their own food to help reduce living expenses.

“We have a master gardener who comes on Tuesday and Thursday and the homebuyers meet us at the garden, and she trains them on what to do,” Turner said. “I love it that’s one of the parts I like the most because I love being outside.”

A personal project of Turner’s is the Elf Shop, a shop where children can purchase Christmas gifts for their parents.

“My daughter lives in Dallas and my grandbaby was taken to a similar store in Dallas,” she said. “It was only for kids. They have someone dressed like an elf who takes the kid around shopping and the parents stay in the front. When they pick out what they want, the gift is wrapped and they leave with their parents.

“I thought that was such a cute idea, I needed to bring that to Vicksburg. I turned the bottom apartment of my house into a holiday store. I have seven Christmas trees and all kinds of trimming. I though it would be a great idea for kids who have never been able to buy their parents a gift.”

The shop, she said, was very successful, adding, “I thought I was going to do it just that year, but now every year the daycares and the schools call, ‘Are you going to do the Elf Shop?’ It’s a lot of work and I end up buying all the stuff myself, but it pays off in the end, because the kids are so excited about it.

“Even now, if I pass by anything I think would be fitting to put in the shop, I’ll just buy it. I have a closet crammed full of stuff I collect over the months before December.”

Two years ago, Turner said, her idea went full circle when her grandchild came to see her for Christmas and bought gifts for her parents at her grandmother’s Elf Shop.

Besides her work for the city and the Elf Shop, Turner is a member of the Vicksburg Association for Women.

“A close friend, Angela Jenkins, helped to create the group,” she said. “There are a lot of needs in the community we hear about, and we work to help meet those needs. We’ve held uniform drives and coat drives.”

Another project is the organization’s Big Hat Tea Party, which honors an unsung hero; someone who is not usually recognized in the community for their work.

“These people never get the recognition they deserve, and it’s nice to be recognized,” Turner said.

She also wants to begin working to organize and develop an inner city walking club.

“To me, you don’t have to go to the park (to walk), because downtown is so beautiful,” she said. “We can walk by the courthouse and get plenty of exercise — up a hill, down a hill.”

Her focus, she said, will be teenagers, because of the rate of overweight children in the south.

And while she’s working on her personal project, Turner is always looking to help people needing help with housing.

“We get so many calls every day from people needing help, so I guess even after work I’m still asking questions and keeping my eye open for opportunities to try and help them. That’s constantly on my mind all the time,” she said.

“I feel like I’m in my second career. NASA was my first career, and I’m starting my second.”