Georgia Mjartan
As we celebrate the beginning of Our House’s 25th year, I have
been reflecting on the values and principles on which this
organization was built. What strikes me most is how true to
our mission we have stayed through all of these years, how our
purpose and the people we are here to serve have remained
steadfast, and how the key elements that made Our House
unique in its founding in 1987 continue into the present day.
In the coming months, I hope to follow a few of these chords
and to listen as they play out over the arc of our history.
A Broad Base of Support from a Diverse Community
Committed to a Common Mission
Twenty-five years ago, a diverse group of community members
representing a wide variety of religious beliefs—Protestants,
Catholics, and Jews—came together in the living room of Mimi
Dortch in response to a troubling phenomenon. When families
became homeless, they were broken apart. Of the two shelters
in Little Rock, neither provided a home for whole families.