​​The Morgan-Scott Project for Cooperative Christian Concerns (MSP)

Since 1972 the Morgan-Scott Project for Cooperative Christian Concerns (MSP) has formed a base from which the needs of low income families in Scott and Morgan counties in rural Tennessee can be addressed. MSP functions as both a social services agency and as a community development organization.

Activities sponsored directly or indirectly by MSP have included a school for children with learning disabilities, free tutoring programs, healthcare clinics, libraries, a homeless shelter, thrift stores, a home garden program, a Habitat for Humanity chapter, education and job training programs, community centers for children, youth, and the elderly, legal aid services, emergency aid, disaster relief, and home repair.

As an underlying principle, MSP has sought to organize concerned citizens of these two counties into small working groups which serve the elderly and disabled with compassion while providing assistance to those who have lost hope by providing a hand up instead of a handout.  These groups are often “spun-off” to form independent service organizations.

MSP was organized in 1972 by executives of the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ, who were concerned with developing spiritual, emotional, and physical resources to meet the needs of an area that had been devastated during the previous twenty years by the loss of human and economic resources.  Their efforts were soon supported by representatives of Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and Episcopal Churches.