Moore Heads Delta Project
Diocesan Press Service. January 8, 1965 [XXVIII-7]
The Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Suffragan Bishop of Washington, has been appointed chairman of an interdenominational program aimed at scaling down aspects of poverty in the Mississippi Delta.
Based in Greenville, Miss., the Delta Ministry program is a five-part pilot project in health education, relief, literacy, community centers, and voter registration. It is supported by churches around the globe through the World Council of Churches.
Director of the program is the Rev. Jon L. Regier, executive secretary of the National Council of Churches' Division of Home Missions.
The health education program officially began Dec. 11 with the arrival of a specially constructed health van staffed by three public health nurses from Boston, Mass.
During the Thanksgiving season, the relief program began a pilot collection project in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kansas. Food and children's clothing were collected in these states for distribution in three Mississippi communities at Christmas.
The literacy program is raising $250, 000 for the development of a new programmed teaching process for adult literacy training.
Three existing community centers in Greenville, McComb and Mileston are receiving financial, technical and organizational support from the community center program. This program also encourages religious and civic groups in towns and cities outside Mississippi to "adopt" community center projects in the Delta.
The voter registration program will conduct citizenship education classes designed to encourage all eligible citizens to register to vote.