JOPLIN, Mo. —
A center to provide social services and recreational programs to tornado survivors living in the Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home parks will be funded by tornado recovery donations made to the Heart of Missouri United Way of Columbia.
Funding of $181,100 was presented Tuesday at Joplin’s City Hall to pay for the installation of a modular building that will house organizations to provide services to residents displaced by the May 22 tornado that are living in the FEMA temporary mobile homes. The Joplin City Council last week approved use of city-owned land in the Officer Jeff Taylor Memorial Park to place the building.
Organizations that will be on site after the office is installed will include the Joplin Family Y, Mercy Health System, Ozark Center, Freeman Health Systems, the Joplin R-8 School District, the Alliance of Southwest Missouri and Rebuild Joplin.
The office should open in mid-February.
Jerrod Hogan, who represents Rebuild Joplin and the United Way of Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas, said the grant for the building is being made from $1.6 million collected for tornado victims as the result of efforts of Brent Beshore, a Columbia United Way board member who is from Joplin.
