QuikTrip Donates Ferguson Site to Urban League

Construction begins on site of former c-store that was burned during last year’s unrest.

July 14, 2015

FERGUSON, Mo. – Earlier this year, QuikTrip announced that it would donate the property in Ferguson, Missouri, where their convenience store was looted and burned during last year’s unrest in the city. Last week, that promise came to fruition as civil rights group the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis broke ground for a new community center on the site.

The new Community Empowerment Center of Ferguson will feature programs for nearby neighborhoods in North St. Louis County. The goal of the center is to broaden access to job training, employment and economic self-reliance for area residents, through expanded job training and education programs.

According to news reports, the facility will be the new location for the Urban League’s “Save Our Sons” workforce program, offering job training and placement services for African Americans and other young men residing in Ferguson and surrounding North County communities. The center will also offer counseling for housing, rent and utility assistance and mental health services.

At a press conference this spring when the partnership was first announced, Michael Johnson, a QuikTrip board director, said he has been involved in the Urban League for years and wanted to do something meaningful at the location.

“We want to be part of our community’s healing,” said Johnson, who retired from the Williams Companies in 2008 after having served as senior vice president and chief administrative officer. “For this community to be everything it can be, these young men need the opportunity to be everything they can be.”

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