HISTORY
MORE began thirty years ago when Sister Kathleen Spencer, School Sisters of Notre Dame, applied for a pastoral ministry position at McDonough Homes, the largest public housing site in St. Paul. Her goal was to attend to the resettlement challenges of the growing numbers of Southeast Asian refugees living there. Distrust and prejudice was increasing between all residents of McDonough homes, native-born and newly arrived Americans. Their lack of ability to communicate with one another and much misunderstanding of one another created tension between the residents and sometimes led to violence.
The St. Paul Public Housing Authority allowed Sister Kathleen to live in one of the apartments in McDonough Homes at no cost. As Sister Kathleen walked the streets of her neighborhood, getting to know the people, residents began to respond to her invitation to come together across cultural lines and work for their common good. The people of the McDonough Homes community began to express their needs and dreams to Kathleen.
In response, she recruited friends and colleagues to help her provide services out of her apartment. Volunteers began assisting with the distribution of donated food and clothing as well as teaching English, GED, and citizenship classes. Over time, empowerment support groups and one-to-one mentoring opportunities developed that addressed issues that were keeping residents in poverty including: employment, education, self-worth, health, and family/personal issues.
MORE’s name comes from one of those self-initiated women’s support groups. The women declared that they needed more money, more opportunities, more jobs, more dignity and more self-respect. In 1989, MORE was officially established as a nonprofit organization. The first Articles of Incorporation stated that the purpose of MORE was:
"To unite the residents of McDonough of all races and cultures into one community, to organize residents to look at the issues that affect them, and then to empower each other to deal with those issues."
MORE quickly outgrew Kathleen’s apartment in the public housing complex and in the early 1990s, the organization purchased and moved to a house located across the street from McDonough. In the early 2000s, a large addition was made to the building with most of the supplies and labor donated. This is the current location of the organization.
The increased space allowed MORE to formalize the English Language Learning (ELL) services and provide additional support services. Emphasis was soon put on EMPOWERMENT in the three program areas of Basic Needs, Adult Education and Social Services.
Mission, Vision, Values & Goals
Mission Statement:
Our mission is to provide refugees and immigrants with education and support, helping them achieve economic and social independence today and for generations to come. With compassion as a priority, we work to remove barriers and ensure our participants’ equal access to important resources and opportunities. Whether those barriers are cultural, financial, educational, language, or systemic, our objective is to make certain that MORE's participants have the opportunity to reach their full potential and enjoy abundant, healthy lives with greater stability outside of poverty.
Vision:
Our newest neighbors are empowered to live peaceful lives free of poverty.
Our Values:
Respect
Compassion
Growth
Equity
Accountability
DEI Statement
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is in the DNA of MORE as an organization - it’s at the core of the work we do. We value diversity. We seek to see the world from another’s perspective knowing that adds to the richness of our own experience and makes our organization stronger. With compassion as a priority, we develop and invest in all people. We work to remove barriers and ensure equal access to important resources, knowledge, understanding, experiences, opportunities, etc. Whether those barriers are cultural, financial, educational, systemic, or because of language, our objective is to make certain that all people have the opportunity to reach their personally defined full potential.
MORE’s mission is accomplished through overall goals that include:
Helping refugees/immigrants and other low-income residents of our area meet their basic needs and stabilize financially and achieve or sustain self-sufficiency.
Assisting refugees/immigrants in improving their English skills and empowering them to learn the skills necessary to function more independently in the United States.
Supporting families in managing life’s myriad of issues and complexities.
Promoting emotional stability in families.
Building mutual respect, understanding and positive relationships among the various cultural groups at MORE and build relationships with the larger community. Involving our program participants, staff, volunteers and donors in working for greater justice in our society, particularly around issues of poverty, literacy and immigration.
In MN, 8% of the population is Foreign-born with 75% of those residents in the workforce. In St. Paul, almost 20% of residents are foreign-born. And in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood where MORE is located, the number of Foreign-born residents jumps to almost a third! The need is very high for the education and support MORE provides to refugees and immigrants, both newly arrived as well as those that have been in the country for some time, in this area. New Americans have less access to good paying jobs that would help them out of poverty, a place in which Foreign-born neighbors are highly overrepresented in our community.
We understand that a newly arrived family shifting out of poverty and then staying out of poverty can take more than one generation. MORE does not place any parameters around a participant's amount of time in the United States and accessing our services. We support New Americans from the moment they arrive in the United States throughout their lives and even into the next generations with their children and grandchildren.
Sources: mncompass.org, newamericaneconomy.org, wrapsnet.org, unhcr.org
