MEMPHIS, Tennessee — In a ZIP code with one of the United States’ highest infant mortality rates, the MyBaby4Me program has been offering hope to dozens of new and expectant mothers and their families since November 2022.

At the Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Monday, June 19 — the holiday of Juneteenth that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. — the NAACP and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced efforts to ensure the longevity and success of MyBaby4Me. 

The Church is donating $500,000 to help renovate the NAACP Memphis Branch, where MyBaby4Me classes are held. 

“Happy Juneteenth and Freedom Day. We embrace and cherish and believe in the truthfulness of the principle of freedom in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it’s in that spirit that we join you today,” said Elder Matthew S. Holland, General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s North America Southeast Area presidency, during a press conference.

MyBaby4Me is one of several educational and humanitarian initiatives by the Church and NAACP to benefit the Black community and promote self-reliance. In June 2021, the Church pledged $2 million a year for three years to help fund these types of projects. 

Elder Holland said the Church’s involvement in the program is reflective of the Savior’s two great commandments — to love God and love others. “We are honored as a Church to be able to do this, and it’s a signal of our trust in these great leaders and what they’re doing and the proven program, MyBaby4Me,” he said. 

Elder Matthew S. Holland, General Authority Seventy, second from right, joins Vickie Terry, middle, executive director of the NAACP Memphis Branch, and others at branch headquarters on the morning of Juneteenth, Monday, June 19, 2023. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is giving $500,000 to help renovate the branch. This renovation will create an inviting community gathering spot for MyBaby4Me meetings and other NAACP and community functions. Workers will also install a commercial kitchen to feed program participants.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The objective of the renovation is to help create an inviting community gathering spot for MyBaby4Me meetings and other NAACP and community functions. Workers will also install a commercial kitchen to feed the women and children participating in the program. 

“I am so excited about this day,” said Vickie Terry, executive director of the NAACP Memphis Branch, who first told Elder Holland about her concern for infant mortality in her area during a meeting a year ago. “What a better day to do it than on Juneteenth, when we are all together, working together, to make sure this is a home place for women who are pregnant and who have had babies.”

Others in attendance at the press conference included Van Turner, president of the NAACP Memphis Branch; Ann Marie Wallace of Baptist Memorial Health Care; Michael V. Beheshti, humanitarian and service outreach coordinator for the Church’s North America Southeast Area; and other NAACP and community members. 

How MyBaby4Me is making a difference

Memphis resident Ashley Martin was eight weeks pregnant with her first child when she saw an advertisement on TV about MyBaby4Me. “I was scared and I didn’t know what to do. … I called the number, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald answered and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s going to be OK.’”

Joell and Lynn Archibald — service missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the MyBaby4Me program — invited her to attend an upcoming class. Now 25 weeks pregnant, Martin has been coming to class every week and has learned about nutrition during pregnancy, car seat safety and safe sleeping, among other topics. 

“I would have been lost. Every time I come to class I learn something. … Any expectant mothers, please come out. It is very helpful,” she said. 

The Archibalds, who are from Oregon and have a background in health care, work with the NAACP and health organizations and community partners in Memphis to teach classes and provide resources for new mothers and their families. 

“Infant mortality is defined as survival to the age of a year,” Lynn Archibald explained, “so our focus really is pregnancy and that first year of life.”

Classes are held at the NAACP Memphis Branch every Tuesday and Thursday and once a month on Saturday. Those who come receive a free hot meal and grocery card. The Archibalds said 62 group sessions have been offered since November 2022, with 42 unique participants. 

Sister Joell Archibald, a service missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shows a chart about newborn procedures during a MyBaby4Me meeting on Saturday, June 17, 2023, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“It’s hard to imagine how challenging life can be until you get to know some of their life stories,” Joell Archibald said. “We just want to do everything possible to lift and support them, to help them have a healthy baby, to help them have a healthy environment to bring that baby home, and to have the knowledge they need to parent that infant and give that baby the best possible chance in life.”

The Church and NAACP’s humanitarian efforts

Much has been done in the two years since leaders of the Church and NAACP stood side by side in the Church Administration Building on Temple Square and announced educational and humanitarian initiatives. 

The Church has given $2 million to fund 116 scholarships via the United Negro College Fund. Last summer, a group of 43 students participated in the Rev. Amos C. Brown Student Fellowship to Ghana, where they experienced Ghanaian culture, learned about their ancestral heritage and became ambassadors of racial harmony.

President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Rev. Amos C. Brown, representing the NAACP, embrace at the announcement of a new partnership between the two organizations during a press conference at the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, June 14, 2021. The partnership will provide $6 million in humanitarian aid over three years to inner cities in the United States, $3 million in scholarship donations over as many years to the United Negro College Fund, and a fellowship to send up to 50 students to Ghana to learn about Black American and African history.

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

In October 2022, NAACP and Latter-day Saint volunteers installed a new water-wise irrigation system in a community garden in San Francisco. The garden provides more than 100 families in a food desert with access to fresh food. To combat asthma, trees are being planted in 10 historically Black neighborhoods across the country. 

The Church’s relationship with the NAACP dates back to 2017, when local Latter-day Saints helped refurbish the NAACP offices in Jackson, Mississippi. The next year, in May 2018, the First Presidency and NAACP leaders released a joint statement calling for greater civility and racial harmony.

In 2019, President Russell M. Nelson spoke during the NAACP national convention in Detroit, Michigan, about building bridges of cooperation rather than walls of segregation. “We are all connected, and we have a God-given responsibility to help make life better for those around us. We don’t have to be alike or look alike to have love for each other. We don’t even have to agree with each other to love each other,” he said.

“If we have any hope of reclaiming the goodwill and sense of humanity for which we yearn, it must begin with each of us, one person at a time.”

A news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org noted other ongoing projects not connected with the NAACP but consistent with the spirit of Juneteenth: the Church’s rehabilitation of the Ella J. Baker House, which helps youth experiencing homelessness and curbs gang violence in Boston, as well as the opening later this month of the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.