Thea Bowman Center
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Mission Statement
Believing in the strength of the people of Mt. Pleasant, our mission is to affirm and sustain in a trusting environment that promotes health and well-being through education and resources, love starts here.
About This Cause
The Thea Bowman Center was established as a 501©3 in 2001 and was named for an African American Nun, Sister Thea Bowman ,gifted with musical talents and an appreciation for cultural diversity and, inclusion . The Center has a 18 year history in the Mt Pleasant community, providing services to over 8,300 adults, families and children. The Mt Pleasant community with 64% of the residents living at or below 200% of the Federal poverty level. Seniors and children make up 41% of the poverty rate. Services goals offered by the Center are to help people reduce the barriers to their plight . We offer help with food support to hungry families ,children and seniors via the food pantry and gardening. Also seniors often care for their grandchildren due to a high incarceration rate which means the need for more food on the table This community of 15,500 is a food desert with no major groceries stores to buy fresh food products and it becomes a bigger issue due to the lack of transportation for most people living here. Volunteers provide a weekly hot nutritious lunch on Saturdays to 175-200 community residents and for some of the people this may be the most balanced meal for the week. Over 2,500 individuals in this community do not have a high school education and 90% are computer illiterate mainly due to the lack of access of internet services or can not afford the internet nor a computer in the home. Thea Bowman offers basic and advance computer classes to adult, seniors and children to support digital literacy to this community. Mt pleasant families are years behind and most importantly children are behind with learning computer skills. Without a high school diploma, residents have no chance of becoming gainfully employed to meet their family needs and began to lift themselves out of poverty.This lack of educational achievement is a significant factor in the Mt. Pleasant community with a very high unemployment rate of 59%. The center provide GED training to help residents with obtaining their education goals. Children 5- 13: participate in after- school and summer programs encouraging reading, math, music and science exploration. Summer and After-school programming includes tutoring, help with homework. Over 600 volunteers give freely of their time and energy to the Thea Bowman Center annually. The center has one full time director and 9 part time staff therefore, we welcome volunteer support. We are pleased that volunteers come from various communities, ages and cultural back grounds. They choose to volunteer at the center in many capacities, gardening, food pantry, tutoring children, preparing and serving the buffet lunch, tutoring adult education/GED program.