Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
PROVO — In an effort to help build up communities, some Utah church buildings are being used as community resource centers during the week — where volunteers teach English, piano, computer and other courses.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first initiated the MyHometown program about three years ago, to revitalize some deteriorating neighborhoods in Salt Lake County, according to Jerry Craven, director of communications for the initiative.
He said, for a while, the church used service missionaries to help members, but it wasn't enough to change an entire neighborhood.
"We needed to get outside to really lift these communities," Craven said.
MyHometown organizes days of service where people come together to care for yards of those who need help, or neighborhood parks, or care for other areas selected by the city. MyHometown also provides community courses at church meetinghouses on weekdays.
Community resource center courses
The community classes are chosen based on what a neighborhood needs most, and vary between each of the 11 MyHometown neighborhoods in Utah. Craven said the biggest classes they teach are English as a second language, and they have multiple levels of the class.
"This is how we raise the community, raising individual people's lives," Craven said. "It just is remarkable what happens over a very short period of time."
Some of the more unique classes include art, piano, home improvement, finance and appliance repair.
Greg Baum, director of MyHometown Provo's Pioneer Park Community Resource Center, said, although some volunteers are service missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they do not wear traditional missionary name tags. Instead, Baum wears a lanyard with a simple name tag and logos for MyHometown and Provo. They do not teach anything about religion at the community events.
He said people from 59 different countries live in the neighborhood surrounding their meetinghouse, and many people are interested in English classes.
On a recent Tuesday, the advanced English class was reading from the U.S. Constitution, and some people in the class had only been learning English a few months. In the beginning class, students introduced themselves, gave encouragement to each other and talked about how they feel loved.
Valynn Baum said the Latter-day Saint meetinghouse they use has an upper floor used for Primary classes on Sundays, but they are able to use it throughout the week for various classes. Volunteers built closets inside the church so they could store their supplies and still keep the rooms ready for Primary on Sunday. They also take down signs outside the church advertising the community center before Sunday meetings.
Community donations and volunteers
Combining resources from the church, the city and donors has allowed the program to make a long-term difference by providing people with what they need to continue using the skills they learn. At the end of some classes, people can leave with a computer, sewing machine or piano keyboard so the skills can continue blessing them, mostly through donations from businesses and community members.
Baum said students use every piano available at the church in the afternoons for piano lessons, scheduling rooms around the local congregations' activities. The center has 73 piano students right now, including adults and children, and 30 teachers.
After a year of piano classes, the center holds a recital at the Covey Center in Provo for all of its students.
"I love it here. … I am just so over the moon about this place," Jeremy, one of the piano students, said.
He lives down the street and said it is a joy for him to come to the community center and meet supportive, happy people doing meaningful things. He said everyone is helpful and kind.
Alan Meylan, another volunteer service missionary, said they have to do three different sessions for the piano recital because there are so many families involved.
The service doesn't stop with classes. At the Provo center, a service missionary comes early to make sandwiches, and they also receive donated bagels.
Many of the students come straight from work, and many work multiple jobs so Baum said volunteers provide food so the students wouldn't be hungry during class.
Days of service
Craven said cities help with the service days by providing equipment for the days of service, finances, and they help identifying locations that need assistance. For projects at community members' homes, the homeowner provides the equipment they are able to, and people with MyHometown provide the labor.
He said the program builds friendships as neighbors get to know each other.
"It becomes neighbors truly helping neighbors and people feeling a sense of community, a sense of brotherhood toward one another because they're working together; and that's what starts to lift these neighborhoods," he said.
He also said each block in the neighborhood is given a captain who helps spread the word about the program and find areas in need.
Future growth
Craven said the program is currently only in Utah, but it is expanding. He said the church hopes to move from its current 11 locations to 15 during 2024. Craven said the church perspective on building use is changing because there are so many needs outside religion.
He said not to expect MyHometown to grow quickly, but said interested church stakes in other areas can ask area presidencies to get advice and permission to use the buildings to grow the community.
"We just know that you can't grow too quickly. You've got to grow with the personnel, the strength, the leadership to make sure that it's sustainable," he said.
Although they use volunteers from outside the neighborhood now, the goal is for neighbors to take over running things and teaching courses.
"We really have some long term goals of community strength, getting people who want to come into the neighborhood and stay and want to contribute. We're trying to help the people in neighborhood get out and meet one another," Craven said.
"We had learned enough in our efforts over the years to realize that neighborhood sustainability is about the people that live in the neighborhoods," said West Valley City Manager Wayne Pyle. "Absolutely. No question. There are things that we can do to assist and help with that. But in the end, it's the neighborhoods and the people that live in them themselves that have got to be able to ensure that longevity and sustainability in the neighborhoods."
Baum said as the neighbors take over, it can allow the church to establish more locations.
There are a lot of people helped by the MyHometown program, who want to find a way to give back. Baum gave multiple examples of people involved at their center, including one woman who is still helping in the nursery two years after the program helped xeriscape her yard — and she doesn't want to stop.
