The Union Mission is beginning a push that the Reverend LaCount Anderson, its director, hopes will eventually lead to a women and children’s shelter in the organization’s name.
The decision comes after a year of studying the needs of women and children in Halifax County, the organization announced on its Facebook page Monday.
To begin this effort, the Union Mission is partnering with the Another Chance Foundation and Christian Woman’s Job Corps of Roanoke Rapids to begin a support group for women.
The weekly support group will meet this fall for several weeks for networking, Christian inspiration and problem solving, the announcement said.
The organizational meeting for the support group will be Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Hattie Cullom Center at Rosemary Baptist Church with the Union Mission providing a light supper.
The start of the support group is just the beginning of the Union Mission’s goals to minister to homeless women and children. The ultimate goal is the shelter, said Anderson.
This, of course, will take funding and Anderson already has his eye on a couple of buildings that would serve the purpose. “This needs to be a communitywide effort.”
The Union Mission ceased housing women several years ago, he said. “It was a hard lesson that you can’t put homeless men and women together, it just became apparent.”
The effort to open a shelter to women and children, Anderson said, “Is going to be a huge effort, one of the hugest things the Union Mission has done. We’re looking for that in three to five years. In the meantime we’re doing the smaller things to enable this. Of course, we have a women’s counselor connected with this and have established the support group.”
The statistics back this ministry, Anderson said. Twenty-five percent of children in North Carolina are poor while 13 percent of families in North Carolina are on food stamps.
Anderson said in 2009-2010, North Carolina ranked 11th in the nation for households that experienced food hardship. “Almost 30 percent of households struggle in North Carolina with food. Move the numbers just a hair and you find Halifax County.”
For more information contact the Union Mission at 252-537-3372.
