freeing hearts, minds, hands, and lives
SCHOOL TYPE
We are a domestic missions outreach school: a private, urban, Christian, elementary school (Pre-Kindergarten – 5th Grade). Unlike other private schools, the schools’s sliding scale tuition is accessible to the general public and although it is affiliated with New City Fellowship Church, Presbyterian Church in America, the school accepts students of other denominations and proclaims the gospel to students of other religions.
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
The Freedom School intentionally recruits students from all walks of life, unlike most schools which are racially or economically homogenous. We have more balanced diversity than local districts or the state average: 66% poverty level students, 21% immigrant/refugee students, 3% Hispanic students, 6% East Asian students, 20% Central and West African students, 41% African-American students, and 22% Caucasian students. Approximately ten nations are represented including: Burundi Costa Rica, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Korea, Mexico, Myanmar, Tanzania.
AFFILIATION
The Freedom School was founded in 1997 by New City Fellowship Church (Saint Louis, Missouri), Presbyterian Church in America. The school belongs to a network of ministries collectively called Restore Saint Louis. Restore Saint Louis synthesizes the experience and leadership of New City Fellowship with the human, financial, and spiritual resources of other churches, students, and businesses from the area and across the nation. Though they operate in different contexts, all Restore Saint Louis ministries endeavor to show God’s love in the form of justice and mercy to the poor, widows, orphans, immigrants and refugees of Saint Louis, Missouri. The Freedom School seeks to demonstrate the Core Values of New City Fellowship in an educational context.
HISTORY
In 1847, John Berry Meachum, an ex-slave, created a school on a riverboat in Saint Louis, Missouri called The Freedom School, in order to set children free from the bonds of slavery. In 1997, one hundred fifty year later, The Freedom School (University City, Missouri) was founded by New City Fellowship, Saint Louis to do the same.
VISION
The Freedom School welcomes children from all walks of life and frees their minds, hearts, and hands from the bonds of sin to serve one another and the oppressed around the world.
MISSION
The Freedom School provides a safe, nurturing, learning community where children of different beliefs, races, ethnicities, and economic circumstances are reconciled to God and to one another by experiencing forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
They are equipped by our knowledgeable and caring staff, using a research-based curriculum, to reach their unique potential as restored image-bearers and servant-leaders of God who steward his creation and proclaim his kingdom of righteousness through practical deeds of justice and mercy to those in their school, local community and around the world.
