2015–2017 Mission Grant: Rosa Young Academies — Rosa Young Projects Initiative, $25,000 fully paid

The LWML provided a grant to LCMS Black Ministry in the Office of National Mission for $25,000. The grant was to help lay the groundwork for the Rosa J. Young Academies project.

Rosa J. Young was born in 1890 to ordinary black/African American parents. However, she did not let her race define her. She let her Christian faith define who she was, and so her Lutheran faith is the center of her legacy. Rosa decided to open her own school for black children in the rural south in 1912. Over the next several years she was instrumental in the development of 30 Lutheran elementary schools and 35 Lutheran congregations in Alabama. To Rosa, education was important, but a Christian education was better.

The grant was used to prepare the Rosa J. Young Academies process for the completion of the following stages of opening the first school in August 2018. As of March 2017, the Rosa J. Young Academies Foundation, Inc., has created the Articles of Incorporation and By/Laws for the creation of regional operations of local Rosa J. Young schools. The RJYAF, Inc., is still in the process of working on regional vetting and due diligence processes for future school applications.

“The Rosa J. Young Academies will be a renewed mission effort to reach urban, inner-city and rural families through quality, values and religious education where possible, and using mercy ministry as the people of God, as a catalyst to serve, and ultimately, to be Christ to those in those communities as Rosa did over 100 years ago, and prayerfully, empower a new generation of professional church workers and lay mission leaders for the growth of Christ’s kingdom.”

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For more information about this mission grant, view the individual mission grant page here.