Urban League of St. Louis Visits Church Headquarters

Three leaders of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (ULSTL) visited the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday, December 2, 2022, to learn more about how the faith engages in the work that ULSTL itself does — helping those in need.

 ULSTL has provided social services to the metropolitan St. Louis community since 1918. The organization’s president and CEO Michael P. McMillan was joined by Thomas R. Bailey, Jr., his group’s vice president of development and special events, and James Clark, ULSTL's vice president of public safety and community response. They saw firsthand the epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ’s welfare and humanitarian efforts in visits to Welfare Square, the Humanitarian Center and the 13-acre Bishops’ Central Storehouse. This is the first time the organization has toured the Church's humanitarian sites.

“Back in St. Louis we have been able to do some significant projects together during COVID. If you look at the tragedy of what has happened around the world over the past three years, the Church came to our aid on numerous occasions with volunteers wanting to give back and then sending truckloads of food,” said McMillan. “When you look at that and everything else that we have planned for next year and the volunteerism, giving back, helping humanity and making a difference, there is a tremendous alignment between the Church and the Urban League.”

“The history of the Urban League is to help people do better, to meet people where they are, and then to use caring, compassionate case support ... to get them to a level of self-stability,” said Bailey. “The Church does the same things, only you take it a step further and say, ‘You’ve got to love.’ ... I think when you combine that with the resources that you’re giving everybody in this world, it’s just an unbeatable combination.”

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In 2021, the Church gave nearly $1 billion in humanitarian and welfare projects, and everyday Latter-day Saints spent 6.8 million hours in service.

McMillan and his colleagues also learned about the Church’s global education initiative known as BYU–Pathway Worldwide, as well as the faith’s self-reliance services and Family History Library. BYU–Pathway Worldwide has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 students. Some 140,000 people benefit from the faith’s self-reliance groups. And the Family History Library has the world’s largest collection of genealogical information.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. It is very encouraging to be here,” said Clark. “It has been quite an experience, quite a revelation to see the infrastructure that the Church has been able to amass to do God’s will ... so it’s a strong revelation knowing that we have partners on this level that can deliver as we deliver.”

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Under the direction of Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Carl B. Cook of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Randall K. Bennett, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s North America Central Area Presidency, led the tours. Elder Bennett was joined at different times by Elder Cook and his wife Lynette Cook, Sister Kristin M. Yee of the Relief Society General Presidency, Sister Tracy Y. Browning of the Primary General Presidency and her husband Brady Browning, and Elder Bennett’s wife, Shelley Bennett.

“We are meant to collaborate with one another,” said Sister Yee. “I was so impressed by [the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’] goodness and vision. We have the same values and desires to bless God’s children. It is powerful when we work together.”

“The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is a remarkable organization and we have so many things in common, especially in our desire to offer lots of aid to uplift and strengthen people who are in challenging situations. They are focusing on things like food security, education, job training and skills ... so it was wonderful to sit with an organization who does similar things and wants to continue working together to do good in the world,” said Sister Browning.