Gordon Community & Cultural Center

The Abbeville School Educational Summer Enrichment Program is a subsidiary of the Gordon Community & Cultural Center located in Abbeville, MS.  As a sponsee of MOUMS, the ASESEP operated on weekdays between June 2019 and July 2019. The camp accepts a maximum of 30 rising 1st-6th graders and provides tutoring for these students in a classroom setting. The subjects covered are Math, Reading, Financial Literacy, Cultural Enrichment, and Physical Education. The total budget requested will go to pay for administrator and facilitators’ stipends, bus driver compensation, and lawn maintenance.

Mississippi Immigration Coalition

Who?

Move On Up, Mississippi has partnered with the Mississippi Immigration Coalition, which consists of six organizations in Mississippi working to provide humanitarian aid to the 680 individuals and their families affected by the Central Mississippi ICE raids of August 2019 .  Because of our $50,000 contribution, along with others like ours, they have been able to provide wide-ranging help to those impacted by the ICE raids that devastated families and communities across Mississippi.

Why?

Almost 700 people were detained on a single day while working to take care of themselves and their loved ones. Children went to the first day of school only to find their parents missing when the school day was over. Hundreds of people were put into immediate crisis with no way to support themselves or their families.

The Impact

The Mississippi Immigration Coalition organized to provide support including:

  1. Humanitarian aid distributed at five sites across the state: Canton, Carthage, Forest, Laurel, and Morton (see attached flyer that was distributed to impacted communities);
  2. Legal representation including criminal defense and immigration counsel;
  3. Organizing leadership to provide the communities with advice on how to access help and how to navigate the crisis;
  4. A hotline to provide advice and direct people to sources of help;
  5. A ride share program to transport those released from detention back home;
  6. Communications expertise that allowed Mississippi and the country to learn about what happened and about those impacted; and
  7. A bond fund to help those detained get out of prison.

The Coalition’s humanitarian aid fund which helps pay necessities including rent, utilities and medicine contains $553,277.60. To date, $309,405 has been distributed to impacted families.