Loading...Ella Smith, executive director of the Morgan Scott Project (MSP), greeted pilgrims with a big smile and a tour of the organization’s building. Smith is the dynamic sole employee of MSP. Among her primary duties are managing volunteers and maximizing resources.
The Morgan Scot Project is in its 41st year and Smith said that this is a good year – they will meet their $250,000 budget. Of the $250,000, about $200,000 goes back into the community; the organization’s thrift store covers overhead.
MSP, started by a Methodist and Presbyterian ministries and three UCC churches in the early 1970s, currently administers 11 programs and helps in too many ways to detail in one article, but some of the work done by the organization includes:
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Emergency aid to people who need help, whether due to a calamity, lack of work, abandonment or any other reason
• Home repair performed in conjunction with work groups – the work includes building wheelchair ramps and porches, replacing roofs, remodeling kitchens and bathrooms and painting
• MSP opened a free medical clinic last April and is now working on adding a dental clinic.
• New Light Program provides assistance to adults in receiving vocational testing and education at Tennessee Technology Center and other institutes in the area. This enables many able-bodied people to learn vocations, get jobs and get off welfare.
• Backpacks for school children
• Seeds, plants and fertilizer – this year 365 families received enough to start a small garden
• A food pantry
Emergency aid to people who need help, whether due to a calamity, lack of work, abandonment or any other reason
• New Light Program provides assistance to adults in receiving vocational testing and education at Tennessee Technology Center and other institutes in the area. This enables many able-bodied people to learn vocations, get jobs and get off welfare.On Fridays, food is given out beginning a t 11 am, but folks can come by as early as 8 am to get a number. “The people who get here earliest, get first pick of what is available – so for the meat – the early folks get chicken breast and the late folks might get veal which they don’t know what to do with,” Smith said. “At 6:15 this past Friday morning there were two people already waiting. At 8 am, 28 numbers were given out.”
Smith said MSP doesn’t have nearly enough for all the requests for home-repair help. “For some repairs we get grants and for those that don’t qualify for grants, we just help.” Work groups are welcome year-round but June through August are usually totally booked very early. Some groups come back at the same time every year.
MSP hosts the work groups and has nice facilities to house volunteers in the main building. When folks volunteer, MSP provides on-site help to guide the work and to assist as needed. Volunteers also have fun – they have outings in the community to rugby or rock climbing with the Park Service. They go to various places in the area to “showcase the positive to go along with the negative they see.”
Smith said she also takes volunteers to her homeplace – the same place she lived when she was a child.
“We had no running water or electricity and the homeplace is still the same. So when work groups visit with us, we whittle, we draw water out of the well, we put wood in a fire pit for hot dogs and s’mores,” she said.
Smith has experienced the attitude some have for those who are “money poor” and need help. “My mother drew Social Security. It hurts me when I hear people talked about in a derogatory way – as if they have no value. When I came back to Tennessee to work for human services, I heard a real estate agent speak in a derogatory way about my family,” she said.
“I’ve worked in a women’s shelter and was a CASA volunteer – I’ve always been in with things that made me aware of what is true and what isn’t. It still hurts me sometimes, because I still remember what people said about me and sometimes what they still say about my family. It’s one of the reasons I do what I do.”
“I love to debunk myths,” she said. “One is that the more children you have, the more you get.” But Smith told pilgrims that $290 is the most you’re ever going to draw. “You have to work 32 hours a week with community service to get $290 of TennCare,” she said.
“Another myth is people using food Stamps to get cash back,” Smith said. “The truth is that all money from the government goes to a bank or on a food stamp card, so child aid and SSI are also put on that card if the person is due those funds. For many families, a bank account is not a good idea, it’s better to have the money on the card so when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
“We feel that education is a way out of poverty,” she said. “If a person is trained, they have an advantage in life and there is a better dynamic in the family.” So MSP helps with educational support and college tuition.
Smith said that the newest enterprise is a free medical clinic with Dr. Tom Kim. “He is here one day a week – takes blood, does pap smears and helps with preventive medicine. There are no medications on site, and Dr. Kim doesn’t treat pain. He treats adults without insurance. One of the big problems here is that if doctors write a certain number of prescriptions for a particular medication, they get a kickback, so unscrupulous doctors want to write prescriptions.” But Kim can write prescriptions if necessary for generic drugs. And now MSP wants to add a dentist to the clinic.
Smith said, “We are equal opportunity in all fields to help anybody who needs it; we try to do what Jesus said to do.”
This year Smith received a Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) Remarkable Achievement Award and last year she her good works were recognized by the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Smith has been honored by the Tennessee House of Representatives and has received the Tennessee Housing Development Agency’s Remarkable Achievement-Rural Award.
“Whatever is needed we do,” Smith said.
