A grass-roots effort aimed at strengthening the family unit throughout the world will culminate next month in Geneva, Switzerland, with the World Congress of Families II.

A follow-up to the first congress held in Prague, The Czech Republic in 1997, this second gathering will be Nov. 14-17. Among the sponsoring organizations of the second congress are the BYU and the Relief Society, with several prominent Latter-day Saints participating as planners and speakers.

A letter about the Congress was sent to general and local Church leaders Aug. 18 from President Boyd K. Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve.

"We commend the efforts of any responsible group which maintains and strengthens the family as the fundamental unit of society," President Packer wrote. "We note that one of the major activities in preparation for the Congress is the gathering of signatures in support of the family. As a matter of policy the Church does not allow its meetings or facilities to be used for such purposes. We raise no objection to having members as individual citizens support this worthy cause."

Millions of signatures have been gathered thus far on the document, "A Call from the Families of the World", said Richard G. Wilkins, professor of law at J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU. He is managing director of the World Family Policy Center (formerly NGO Family Voice), an organization created at BYU in January 1997 to promote family policy internationally.

The organization has engineered the Call to Families, which declares in part: "The natural family is the fundamental societal unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered around the voluntary union of a man and woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage for the purposes of satisfying the longings of the human heart to give and receive love; welcoming and ensuring the full physical and emotional development of children; sharing a home that serves as the center for social, educational, economic and spiritual life; building strong bonds among the generations to pass on a way of life that has transcendent meaning; and extending a hand of compassion to individuals and households whose circumstances fall short of these ideals."

The call notes that today certain social, political and economic forces threaten the natural family, that they weaken family bonds under such slogans as "modernity," "globalization," and "progress."

The document concludes by calling for the convening of the World Congress to rally organizations and individuals to protect the family, develop guidelines for public policy, raise worldwide awareness and create ongoing structures for mutual support.

In an interview following a recent fund-raising luncheon in Salt Lake City, Brother Wilkins said the effort is proceeding full speed ahead.

"What there is to do now is continue gathering signatures on the Call for the Families of the World," he said. "We hope to have millions of signatures on that call by the time we convene in Geneva. We're going to continue to collect them until the end of January 2000, because we're going to present it to the United Nations Commission on Social Development in February of the year 2000. So people can send in their signed copies of the call through the end of January."

Brother Wilkins said organizers hope to collect most of the signatures before the meeting convenes in Geneva next month.

"We are hoping to encourage people to come to the congress," he added. "It's going to be a very important networking event for people who are interested in preserving and strengthening the family all over the world. It's a tremendous opportunity to learn from the best family scholars and the most committed leaders of all faiths on these issues."

He said his experience in working with family issues is that "little miracles" happen along the way. "You bump into this person who knows that person, and the chains of events that occur from seemingly random meetings are pretty significant."

Brother Wilkins said he feels such endeavors as this are consistent with the Proclamation to the World on the Family issued by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. "The congress shows that on this issue, on issues related to the family, we can work with people of all faiths.

"And the family proclamation [from the First Presidency and Twelve] calls upon us to do that."

Alice Turley, special assistant to the World Congress, said that between 900 and 1,000 local chairmen have been recruited to assist in gathering signatures on the call.

"And we're sending the call to all political, religious and civic leaders in 238 countries, translated into 45 languages," she added. "We are getting messages back and requests from Malta, for example, and the Netherlands, and Moscow. People are interested in this, in coming to the congress and carrying the message of the family into their own countries, particularly in their own language."

Copies of the call and information about registering for the congress can be obtained by contacting Alice Turley at (801) 355-8349, fax (801)578-0320. The call itself can be found in any of the 45 languages into which it has been translated at the Internet Web site www.ngofamilyvoice.org.