Meggan Monday: Moore Community House celebrates 100 years serving the Coast
Since 1924, Moore Community House has served South Mississippi as a social service agency that works with low-income women and families, providing early childhood education and workforce training. This year, they’ll celebrate 100 years of service.
Let’s go to Moore Community House to learn more about what they have to offer and what their plans are for the future.
Former Executive Director Carol Burnett said, “The 100 years is just an amazing legacy of the service of this organization and the focus has always been on supporting families. It was begun in 1924 by Thad Moore, a minister of a church right here on this property, and his wife, Myrtie Moore, were the two who saw the need to create a program for children living in the seafood industry housing.”
“Currently, Moore Community House offers the Women in Construction job training program and our Early Head Start program. Think our number of graduates that we’ve graduated is between 900 and 1,000 women over the years that we’ve been operating, which is a training to get women into what’s called non-traditional jobs where they can enter occupations that pay higher wages than the jobs they typically have. Women in Construction has been going since 2008.”
“We have eight-week classes. We have two-week classes. We have some very specific classes like forklift classes that are just weekend classes. They get a number of different credentials that then can position them to compete for entry level jobs at places like Ingalls. Our child care services now are offered through early head start. We have four centers across Harrison County where we serve around 200 children under 36 months of age.”
“But we found a little newspaper article from 1932, a woman was writing and asking advice in an advice column, what should I do? My husband died. I’ve got two children. The response of the advice columnist was try to get a job in the seafood industry and you can take your children to Moore Community House. They’ll be taken well care of and that was 1932. That’s the role Moore Community House has been playing in families for 100 years.”
The non-profit is inviting everyone to its celebration of 100 years of service on October 25th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at their Women in Construction building at 684 Walker Street in Biloxi.
