“We are grateful to the community for enabling us to build the Community Empowerment Center of Ferguson. It is our hope that the center will assist thousands of young men and their families throughout the North County area,” said Michael P. McMillan, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc.

The new facility will house the Urban League’s “Save Our Sons” workforce program, which will provide job training and placement services for up to 500 African-Americans and other young men in Ferguson and North St. Louis County over the next two years. It also initially will have offices for Provident, Better Family Life, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and Home State Health.

Construction management firm Kwame Building Group, Inc. will provide owner’s representative services for the new Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc.’s Community Empowerment Center of Ferguson, a job training center on the site of the burned-down QuikTrip convenience store in Ferguson.

“The Urban League believes their mission of helping African American men find jobs includes giving them the opportunity to build the center itself,” said Joshua Randall, president of Kwame Building Group. “So an important part of our role as construction manager is to achieve the maximum MBE and minority workforce participation possible.”

The QuikTrip Corporation donated the property, which had been destroyed during the unrest in Ferguson.

The new building will be an expansion of the Urban League’s existing job training and education efforts. The center will offer four-week job-training programs to help young black men learn how to get jobs, keep them and work towards promotions. The center also will offer counseling for housing, rent and utility assistance, and mental health services provided by Provident, Inc.

Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis © July 2015