Lee Charities is here to help the nonprofit and social services network within Baldwin County.

The organization's work, which was created in 2024, has included connecting nonprofits through a database while also being there to help however they can. They also work in the community on projects, with their main initiative being the Sea Glass Initiative, which is dedicated to providing shelter and other needs to the homeless and unhoused within Baldwin County.

Mitchell Lee, who serves as the organization's vice president, spoke about the origins behind the Sea Glass Initiative. Former Baldwin County Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack called a community meeting to address the growing homeless issue spreading in the county, leading to the creation of the new initiative.

The Sea Glass Initiative provides transportation to doctors appointments, job searching and even helping people pay housing and utility deposits once they have gone through their program.

Lee said they have also been recruiting volunteers to help out with the Sea Glass Initiative.

"There's lots of opportunities to help cook and feed homeless people," Lee said. "There's lots of opportunities to help mentor and also transport people needing help getting to doctors appointments or jobs or stuff like that."

Lee Charities has also been growing, having recently named Penny Hughey as the organization's director of community development. According to a press release, she will be responsible for the marketing, promotion and fundraising efforts for the Sea Glass Initiative as well as aiding in the design and execution of the organization's efforts to help and improve nonprofits within the area.

Lee said her previous experience at the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber gives them an edge in what they hope to achieve.

"We're incredibly excited to have her on board because what she's going to do is kind of help build and create a lot of programs and systems for the nonprofit community to help strengthen them," Lee said about Hughey. "She's also going to help fundraise for some of our different charities that we're not involved with. Penny is going to be great. We're super excited about her."

In addition, Lee said they are working with the local United Way and are developing a new leadership academy, which will provide training to those involved in local nonprofits to help improve and upscale them.

However, the biggest goal for Lee and Lee Charities is to make Baldwin County the best it can be through gathering resources to help those who are in need.

"The overall vision is just to help strengthen the safety net and social services network of Baldwin County," Lee said. "What we're doing is we're making the county just a better place as we're taking the people who are most vulnerable — your homeless, your uneducated, your people living in cars, people who are, you know, not thriving — and giving them an opportunity to work on their lives, better their lives and reintegrate them back into society and kind of make something of themselves. So, we're helping the individual, but, overall, we're helping the county as a whole as well."