A building that once housed church gatherings and family programs in North St. Louis will now serve as a hub for legal advocacy and grassroots organizing — a shift that leaders say is about far more than a grand opening.
Action St. Louis and ArchCity Defenders officially opened the Northside Movement Center at 5939 Goodfellow Blvd. in the Walnut Park neighborhood last week with a ceremony, tours and an open house. The 36,000-square-foot building now serves as the shared headquarters for both organizations and includes rental and co-working space for community groups.
For the leaders of the organizations that will occupy the space, the center represents permanence in a part of the city long defined by disinvestment.
“It’s a love letter to the people and communities in this region that have been neglected, overlooked and that have been counted out,” said Blake Strode, executive director of ArchCity Defenders.
His organization provides holistic legal advocacy for residents navigating housing instability, municipal court debt and other systemic barriers. Strode said the center reflects a deeper commitment to “community first, people first and community building.”
“In this place we stand together and we are powerful,” he told supporters gathered for the opening.
For Kayla Reed, executive director of Action St. Louis, the building is rooted in both movement history and personal memory.
“Today is about legacy,” Reed said. “This is a place where we can serve together, organize together and transform St. Louis together. North City is the North Star.”
Reed said the north side — often spoken about in terms of vacancy and decline — instead holds “stories of resistance, brilliance, struggles and possibility.” She said the center was intentionally designed to honor that history.
Every room in the building carries the name of a north city neighborhood — Mill Creek, The Ville, College Hill, O’Fallon and Wells-Goodfellow among them. Reed said naming the rooms serves as a daily reminder of who the work is for.
“This is a declaration that North City is worth investment,” she said. “It is a declaration that our communities are worth permanence.”
Dr. Will Ross, chairman of Friends of Northside, the nonprofit leading the capital campaign for the building, called the center “the epicenter for a network of social services, empowerment, community justice and community dreams.”
The building previously operated for more than 20 years as a family center for New Northside Missionary Baptist Church. In 2021, leaders from Action St. Louis and ArchCity Defenders began searching for a centralized location in North St. Louis, moving from borrowed and scattered spaces into a permanent home embedded in the community.
For Reed, the connection to the former church runs deep. Her grandmother’s funeral was held there.
“This building is a part of my ecosystem. I didn’t even know this was possible,” she said. “This building was always built to serve. This is the manifestation of a dream that I have had for a long time.”
Action St. Louis was born out of organizing efforts that followed the Ferguson uprising in 2014, first taking root in the basement of Saint John’s United Church of Christ on North Grand. Reed said having a space of this scale expands what the organization can do — from campaign planning and leadership training to rapid disaster response.
“Having our own space allows us to plan around our campaigns, train more people, hold more community meetings and be able to rapidly respond to disasters,” she said.
The size of the facility also opens possibilities for emergency shelter, grocery distribution and mutual aid events, Reed added.
Dr. Sabrina Tyuse, a social work professor at Saint Louis University who volunteered with Action St. Louis in the aftermath of the May 16 tornado, said the center meets people where they are.
She compared it to Chicago’s historic settlement houses, which were designed to connect underserved residents with essential resources and services.
“I hope the people who need the Northside Movement Center find it,” Tyuse said. “This will be a jewel for this community.”
Strode said sharing space with a key movement partner reflects ArchCity Defenders’ approach to collaborative advocacy.
“We view our legal work through the lens of broader movement efforts in St. Louis,” he said. “This space is also about catalyzing something — the community needs to have a home that can foster that.”
Longtime St. Louis activists Jamala Rogers and Percy Green echoed that sentiment, pointing to decades of neglect in neighborhoods such as North Pointe and Walnut Park.
The celebration also included a weekend fundraising luncheon hosted by Friends of Northside.
For supporters, the Northside Movement Center stands as both symbol and strategy — a reclaimed space in a community that has long organized for justice, now equipped with the square footage to match its ambition.