Caring Summary 2024—Self-Reliance

Self-Reliance Groups

To help individuals become self-reliant, the Church offers several group courses:

• Starting and Growing My Business
• Personal Finances
• Emotional Resilience
• Education for Better Work
• Find a Better Job

In Paris, France, a stake president held training sessions for leaders in his stake and encouraged each ward to call a welfare and self-reliance specialist. These specialists learned how to conduct self-reliance groups and have guided many people in the area toward a path of self-reliance.

One couple attended the Personal Finances and Starting and Growing My Business groups and shared how these courses affected their lives: “The self-reliance groups and courses are inspiring and help us to ‘awaken and expand our capabilities.’ [We’re] grateful that [we] took them. Five years later, [we] can still see the blessings every day.”

Self-Reliance Efforts

In Liberia, the Church donated to the World Food Programme’s efforts in agricultural training, farmers’ cooperatives, and agribusiness centers. These programs taught farmers in Liberia skills that improve farming practices, boost crop yields, and increase their incomes. Additionally, the Church funded the construction of centers and warehouses that improved farming efficiency and helped the community.

In Brazil, the Church supported a Portuguese language training course that helped migrants improve their job prospects.

Empowered through Self-Reliance Courses

Juanita experienced homelessness for three years before finding and joining the Church. Soon after, she took the Education for Better Work self-reliance class and said, “My life has not been the same since.”

Juanita then took both the Personal Finances and Emotional Resilience courses. “Every class has taught me something about myself,” she says. Juanita is now enrolled in college classes, is able to pay her bills, and aims to eventually work in human resources.