Mission West Virginia, a private charity group created to address a myriad of problems in that state's poor communities, has received the first third of a $1.5 million endowment from the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.

The $500,000 donation was presented to Gov. Cecil H. Underwood, who created the privately-funded nonprofit last year as a way to unite the efforts of church groups, community organizations and other charities and foundations statewide.

The foundation's priorities include literacy, health care, job training and mental health efforts.

The group has already launched the "Faith and Families Welfare to Work" program, which enlists religious organizations to help ease the transition from welfare to work, as well as a foster-parents recruitment drive, a computer literacy effort and a teen-oriented domestic violence prevention campaign.