Wanted: Development Policies for a More Equitable St. Louis

By Andrew Arkills, Data Analyst and Community Leader

In May of 2016, the City of St. Louis released a detailed report on tax incentives. Since then, we have seen few proposals for more equitable policies. For all the talk of applying racial equity lenses to systems, somehow, St. Louis’ development policy continues to escape serious examination.

Let’s not sugarcoat things:

Over the past 15 years, the City’s development community has been awarded billions of dollars in city, state and federal tax subsidies and incentives. The result? More racial segregation and an accelerating trend toward neighborhood-level income segregation. Recent analysis shows that 72 percent of these subsidies went to developments in the Central Corridor, where we are seeing another incentive-fueled development boom. St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) is doling out obscene amounts of tax abatement for posh, non-university-owned dormitories for children of wealthy families. Meanwhile, thousands of families with kids who are working multiple jobs to get through community college, UMSL or a trade school are subsidizing them.

Just north of Delmar, there is now an unbroken line of high-poverty census tracts stretching from the river to Wellston. This is new. Concurrently, many Central Corridor neighborhoods are becoming wealthier and whiter. These things are not unrelated. As long as our city continues down an outdated path of “trickle down”-style development policies, these outcomes will continue to be entirely predictable. As Bob Lewis (President of Development Strategies) said in 2014: “It’s other people’s money. You might as well ask for it.”

Why should this matter for those in the community development sector?

Why would many development companies or lending institutions look to much of north or south St. Louis for non-Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)-fueled opportunities when they know they can get massive subsidies to build luxury high-margin apartments, condos and retail in higher-income neighborhoods? Our city’s development policy encourages exclusionary developments. For smaller rehabbers that understand the system, “spot blight”-enabled abatements similarly encourage targeted rehabbing in neighborhoods that already have healthy markets, which is the opposite of the policy’s stated intent.

What is TeamTIF?

TeamTIF is a group of residents that have come together to counterbalance the status quo concepts driving our city’s development policy and to help revitalize a movement to enact the community development recommendations of the Ferguson Commission. TeamTIF believes we need real change. We also believe that equitable development is in the city’s long-term economic best interest.

At a basic level, TeamTIF believes that the City can and should be asking for more when negotiating with developers. Projects are offered TIF, abatement, and site-specific, “developer-driven” special taxation districts that inflate developers’ bottom lines. As a result, developers demand continually higher development fees (a.k.a. profits). Meanwhile, our city’s debt rating is being downgraded, and ratings agencies cite these sweetheart deals as a reason. This raises our city’s lending costs, which are largely passed on to homeowners and renters in the city’s northern and southern wings. There seems to be little concern for the social costs of our current development policies. TeamTIF believes that SLDC has abdicated its fiduciary responsibility to the vast majority of our citizenry.

The City seems unwilling to learn that if our goal is to drive equitable development, building lots of higher-end housing in the Central Corridor hasn’t been a winning strategy. These no-strings-attached deals have increased neighborhood-level economic and racial segregation patterns, and there is no rational reason to believe that will change.

TeamTIF believes we deserve both better negotiators and better strategies. Central to this will be incentive-linked Inclusionary Zoning and stronger safeguards against unnecessary tax abatements in areas with higher property values and/or lower poverty rates.

How Would Incentive-Linked Inclusionary Zoning Work?

If a sizable multifamily development is being built, we need to tie Inclusionary Zoning requirements to incentives. You can build your 250-unit building with aid from the City, but in return, you must set aside units for various levels of affordability. If we are to effectively combat growing economic segregation, this is the only option left to the City. If current developments had Inclusionary Zoning requirements, we could be creating affordable housing units in neighborhoods where we want to integrate lower- and moderate-income families.

A growing number of cities are instituting incentive-linked Inclusionary Zoning requirements, and not just coastal real estate hotspots. Fellow “Rust Belt” city Pittsburgh appears close to adopting incentive-linked Inclusionary Zoning. Even as far south as New Orleans, they are considering these ordinances. We should join them.

By instituting Inclusionary Zoning and a stricter approval process for the “spot blighting” system, we will begin to de-incentivize inequitable development practices. As businesspeople, developers look for the easiest money available, which is currently tax-subsidized development projects that are marketed to higher-income families. If we are to see more broadly shared prosperity, we must both pass an Inclusionary Zoning ordinance and remove incentivizing systems that grant developers abatements in the neighborhoods where they would already be turning a decent profit anyway.

In the wake of #Ferguson, many in our metropolitan area have recognized that building a more equitable St. Louis remains central among the challenges facing our region. We should not let this historical window pass us by. If we do not adopt reforms during the current construction boom, we will have missed a great opportunity. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even save the City’s credit rating in the process.

Andrew Arkills is a data analyst and community leader, with a professional focus in supply chain and logistics. His community work is focused on neighborhood leadership and advocacy, where he pushes for more racially equitable, transparent, and responsible government. He has a BA in Psychology from Purdue University and an MBA from Saint Louis University. Andrew works for a large, local non-profit healthcare organization in St. Louis. He is the current President of the Tower Grove South Neighborhood Association, and has also served as Treasurer of that organization.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Community Development at Work: Lemay

Collaboration Continues to Lift the Community of Lemay

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Lemay Homes Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, November 2016

The community of Lemay in South St. Louis County gained 40 brand-new single-family homes this year with the completion of Lemay Homes, a project co-developed by Lemay Housing Partnership, Inc. (LHP) and Rise Community Development (Rise). The lease-purchase homes are affordable to families earning 60 percent or less of the Area Median Income. The units were financed using State and Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and with support from the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC), the St. Louis County Office of Community Development, PNC Bank, and Sugar Creek Capital.

“Lemay Homes is really providing an opportunity for more housing options in this community,” said Reginald Scott, LHP’s Executive Director. “That’s one of LHP’s goals, to create more quality housing options for people who live here and also to encourage folks to move here.”

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Reginald Scott, Executive Director of Lemay Housing Partnership, Inc.

Lemay Homes is the latest in a series of efforts to lift the well-being of the Lemay community. After the flood of 1993 wiped out many area homes and part of what was then downtown Lemay, local leaders and residents worked together and developed plans and implementation strategies that eventually led to the formation of LHP in 1998.

For Scott, those foundations speak to the resilient, engaged spirit of Lemay’s residents. “LHP was created via concerned people in the community coming together and working hard to look out for one another,” he said. “They decided that there needed to be an organization in the community that dealt with housing issues. With additional seed funds from the St. Louis County Port Authority, LHP was born.”

Since then, LHP has worked to implement projects and programs that strengthen and support that community. As a certified Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) and U.S. Housing Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-Certified Housing Counseling Agency, LHP provides homebuyer training and counseling, home repair financial assistance through forgivable loans, and down payment and closing cost assistance as a participant in St. Louis County’s HOME Consortium 1st Home Program.

LHP also executes residential development projects like Lemay Homes. The Lemay Homes development provided a valuable opportunity to tackle blight in the community. During the property acquisition process, the project team targeted derelict and vacant properties that had been causing problems for existing residents, St. Louis County Public Works, and/or the St. Louis County Police. One lot, for example, was the former site of a now-demolished methamphetamine lab.

Standing in the place of those properties now are 40 high-quality, affordable three- and four-bedroom homes. All will remain rental properties for the next 15 years. However, since the project is designed as a lease-purchase program, residents will become eligible to purchase their units at the end of the tax credit compliance period. The longer a resident family remains in their home, the lower their potential home’s effective purchase price at the end of the mandatory lease period.

Until then, residents have the opportunity to prepare for homeownership with help from LHP. That includes coaching as well as a gradual transfer of homeownership responsibilities, which started this year with participation in lawn care upkeep. “They will learn to be homeowners,” Scott explained. “A lot of the units came online over the summer, and we gave them hoses and sprinklers so they could water the sod and seed. And each year we hope to pass on more responsibilities, so at the end of the day they can function comfortably and confidently.”

Scott cites this capacity to provide comfort and security as one of Lemay Homes’ biggest strengths. “For some of the new residents, it’s been amazing to see the impact on them and their family living in a brand-new, single-family home. It can have a huge impact on your self-esteem,” he said. “What’s occurred in other lease-purchase projects similar to this one is that people really take ownership and pride in a brand-new home with new appliances and modern features. So we hope that the new home will be a motivator and stabilizer for the new residents and that its affordable price will create and sustain an improved quality of life for all the families.”

The positive impact of Lemay Homes has also carried over to the community at-large. Expanded housing options and improved housing stock mean higher home values for area residents, and the new construction projects have drawn noticeable responses from neighbors who have been inspired to complete their own home improvements. “Once we started doing development work of scale, we saw a lot of folks come out and start to invest,” Scott said. “A lot of fix-up, painting, new windows, et cetera.”

LHP’s home repair program makes that home repair work more economically viable for Lemay residents. “We’re trying to reinforce and provide services to existing homeowners so that they don’t feel like they can’t improve their conditions as well,” Scott explained. “Maybe they’re not able to purchase or rent one of the new homes because of the pricing or demand, but they can make improvements and critical repairs. We are assisting them with making sure that their homes are safe and healthy.”

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Dr. Kevin Carl, Superintendent of Schools, Hancock Place School District

The Lemay Homes development has added families to the Lemay community, too. All but a few residents are new to the area, and most have children who are now students in Lemay’s Hancock Place School District (HPSD), where local resident enrollment increased this year for the first time in ten years.

For a school district doing all it can to be an active partner and community asset in Lemay, that shift was a big win. Dr. Kevin Carl, HPSD’s Superintendent of Schools, believes this commitment is critical to the area’s well-being. “Here’s the reality,” he said. “I don’t care where you live, but if you’re in Missouri, because we’re not an open enrollment state, one of the questions you’re going to ask when you move somewhere, even if you don’t have kids, is ‘What school district is this?’”

That’s why HPSD provides top-notch technology and teaching resources to students and wraparound services to area families, including a free health clinic that’s open to all residents of the 63125 zip code. It’s also why Dr. Carl spends so much time seeking out ways to collaborate with other community organizations. “In the end, we all want the same positive outcome in the community,” he said. So when leaders and residents come together, the question they often consider is, “How do we think we can best facilitate that?”

Rise, too, has been a key partner in these long-term efforts to engage and revitalize the Lemay community. Rise provided a portion of the start-up capital for local news and outreach through the Community Link, a local quarterly newspaper that’s managed by LHP, HPSD, Lemay Development Corporation, and the Lemay Chamber of Commerce. In 2014, LHP broke ground on its first relatively large residential development project, Smith Place at Linn, which featured ten new affordable for-sale homes. Rise provided some predevelopment funding and helped secure a Priority Markets Grant from Wells-Fargo to cover part of the project’s cost. Midwest Bank Centre, the St. Louis County Office of Community Development, and the St. Louis County Port Authority also supplied financing. The homes sold quickly once they were completed, and in 2015, Smith Place at Linn earned LHP a Better Neighborhoods Award from DeSales Community Housing Corporation.

Both Smith Place and Lemay Homes have been outgrowths of the Lemay Comprehensive Plan, adopted by St. Louis County in 2006. The Plan was developed by the County Council and Lemay stakeholders to identify community needs and strategies for improvements. Using the comprehensive plan, LHP worked with local residents and stakeholders to develop the East of Broadway Neighborhood Plan. Smith Place was the initial project implemented as a result of the neighborhood plan. Next in line could be a series of economic development projects along South Broadway, which will likely focus on local services prioritized by Lemay neighbors at a recent charrette. “I give this community credit—they do show up and are engaged in the planning,” Scott said. Residents said they’d like to see coffee and ice cream shops, cafes, and other small, community-oriented businesses within walking distance. Development work might also feature service providers that offer workforce training, financial services and counseling, health services, or office space for local professionals.

These possibilities and completed projects have lifted the collective spirit of Lemay residents, many of whom have faced uncertainty about the area’s future in years past. The community has been hit with foreclosures and tax delinquencies, previous development plans included speculation about a potential industrial park, and some residents worried that an expansion of River City Casino might capture vacant land for parking. The result, Scott said, was that “people held off on really making significant equity investments in their property.”

Larry Perlmutter, Communications and Development Manager, Rise Community Development

Thanks to committed community partners like LHP, Rise, and HPSD, that’s no longer the case. Larry Perlmutter, Rise’s Communications and Development Manager, links their shared work in Lemay to powerful ripple effects. “Anytime you can create a development that not only improves the appearance of the community, but that contributes to the overall community’s quality of life, it’s a good thing,” he said. “When you bring in more tax revenue, when you bring in more students to the school system, when you create work in the community—all of those things are good.”

Dr. Carl agrees. He encourages community-building organizations and partnerships to “think big”: “Don’t underestimate the ability of your community to do things that they’ve not seen before, or to think about things they haven’t otherwise thought of,” he said. “Foundationally, you need to make sure you’ve got the right people in the right places. That’s number one. And then, don’t limit yourself. Include everybody in that conversation.”

That inclusive, cooperative framework is important to LHP, too. “The coolest thing about doing this work is that we are trying to constantly stay engaged with the local residents, institutions, and businesses to make sure that LHP’s work reflects programming and projects consistent with the real needs in the community. That’s important,” Scott emphasized. “You have to really work to create a game plan, and make sure you have shared ownership of the plan with the stakeholders in the community.”

As far as that plan is concerned, LHP remains committed to celebrating the community’s achievements along the way as it continues to explore next steps. “We’re one of many folks out here trying to figure it out,” Scott said. “And collectively we’ll get there sooner rather than later.”

Click here to watch a video of testimonials from LHP stakeholders and community members who have been touched by the organization’s work. Below are photos from November’s Lemay Homes Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, courtesy of Rise.

Written by Jenny Connelly-Bowen, CBN Graduate Research Assistant

Community Development at Work: LinkSTL Spooktacular

LinkSTL Brings Together Over 500 Neighbors for Trick-Or-Treating and Community Building

When LinkSTL in North St. Louis City’s Hyde Park neighborhood began planning their second annual Spooktacular Halloween event this year, they set sights on a higher turnout than they’d had in 2015. Last October, Spooktacular drew about 150 registered attendees and over 200 by the end of the day’s event. As a part of their aim to grow Spooktacular this year, LinkSTL set its 2016 attendance goal at 300 people.

So even they were surprised when the event drew over 500 registrants—and even more neighbors who stopped by unexpectedly on the day of the event.

For Timetria Murphy-Watson, LinkSTL’s Executive Director, this was a signal of the passion Hyde Park’s residents have for their community. “It’s one thing for people just to come in the park because they see other people, they hear music,” she said. “But they actually took the time to go to the office and get registered and follow protocol, so they can stay in contact and stay engaged.”

LinkSTL faced a slightly different response when pulling together their first Spooktacular event last year. The place-based community organization was met with skepticism from residents as they began announcing the event in 2015. “It wasn’t until the day of the event that I think people really took it seriously,” Murphy-Watson recounted. “We passed out flyers, we had meetings. But the day of, we ordered orange balloons and we put them up along the neighborhood to light a route.”

Those balloons caught the attention of neighbors. Murphy-Watson described residents’ reactions as the President of LinkSTL’s Board of Directors, Michele Duffe, helped to place the balloons: “People are looking at her, and she’s smiling, and people are smiling back. And it was something as simple as one orange balloon that made people smile.”

LinkSTL didn’t start out intending to host a Halloween event. “Our purpose in the neighborhood is to bring the neighbors to different things that already exist,” Murphy-Watson explained. Communities First, a nonprofit agency that serves children and families primarily in North St. Louis City and County, had already been holding Halloween parties in the neighborhood for several years. But in 2015, as LinkSTL began convening community meetings to draw out residents’ thoughts about what they wanted to see in their neighborhood, it quickly became obvious that neighbors wanted to create opportunities for trick-or-treating.

As Murphy-Watson pointed out, trick-or-treating is a natural fit for community-building. “We wanted to provide an opportunity in the neighborhood where people felt like they would in any other neighborhood. People trick-or-treat. That’s how you get to know your neighbors,” she said. “But if you don’t know your neighbors, you’re less likely to trick-or-treat in your neighborhood.”

That type of isolation can dampen residents’ perceptions of their communities. “The kids in this neighborhood always described other neighborhoods with more positive thoughts and emotions,” Murphy-Watson recalled. “So the whole purpose of Spooktacular was to bring the neighbor to the neighborhood and to provide a positive experience through trick-or-treating and going out.”

When the event started that first year, LinkSTL’s office filled up more quickly than the team was expecting. Attendees were clustered into groups of about 15 with adult volunteer chaperones for each group. The trick-or-treating route, which had been planned in advance, consisted of about 30 homes and 5 organizations that had opted in to participate as safe stops along the way. Group leaders were given residents’ names beforehand to allow families and kids participating a chance to meet their neighbors and remember where they lived going forward. LinkSTL created maps to accompany the route and provided candy for homes that volunteered to participate as handout locations.

Once groups started making their way through the neighborhood, other residents came outside to join in. “People were just sending their kids outside, and kids were running to get along the route,” Murphy-Watson said. “They talked about what school they went to and things of that nature.” Trick-or-treating was followed with a party at Clay Elementary, where the team received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Many longtime neighborhood residents shared that they had never taken their children trick-or-treating in Hyde Park before. “It was an awakening moment for us all,” Murphy-Watson shared. “Because we just thought, ‘Let’s just do trick-or-treating. People say that they don’t trick-or-treat here; I think that that’s a positive way to move the community forward. Let’s do it.’ But we didn’t know that all those little things would happen in-between.”

This year, LinkSTL set out to make Spooktacular “bigger and better,” Murphy-Watson said. Part of their efforts dovetailed with an initiative that had grown out of LinkSTL’s community development work groups: a desire among residents to rebrand both the neighborhood and park. The LinkSTL team had also heard from residents that they wanted the celebration to feel more like a festival, so Spooktacular this year incorporated a handful of new features: a haunted house, face painting, a bounce house, a game area, and stations to make caramel apples and decorate cupcakes.

Many of these new elements were entirely volunteer-driven. “We had a resident volunteer to make 250 cupcakes, and she did it,” Murphy-Watson said. “She’s a really good baker. And the kids just came in and decorated the cupcakes.” Residents also volunteered to build the haunted house, which was a huge hit among kids and parents. “That was a lot of kids’ first time being in a haunted house,” Murphy-Watson said. “Kids were really running through screaming with their parents. It was good.”

LinkSTL invited local businesses to take part in Spooktacular too. One resident’s company, Creative Balloons, crafted balloon sculptures to display in the park and at event starting locations. Other businesses were invited to set up a table at the event, and many who didn’t opted to send a donation instead.

Spooktacular also held a costume contest for kids. And for families who volunteered to hand out candy along the route, LinkSTL had a special thank-you gift this year: a pumpkin to carve and enter into a pumpkin-decorating contest. “Everything happened so fast last year, and my regret was we didn’t have a culminating time to say ‘thank you’ besides the thank-you letters that we sent out later,” Murphy-Watson said. “So I wanted to give the families something.”

LinkSTL conducted a survey after the event to gather resident feedback. Again, the results were incredibly positive: “The only complaint that some people had was that it ended early,” Murphy-Watson noted.

Spooktacular’s success has done a lot to raise the visibility of LinkSTL and the community-building work it’s been encouraging in Hyde Park. Murphy-Watson, who has led LinkSTL for almost two years and owns a house in the neighborhood, acknowledged that Spooktacular has helped draw many residents in to participate in some of the organization’s longer-term programming, like its summer camp, community work groups, and Youth Council. That movement will ultimately help bolster LinkSTL’s core mission, which focuses on acting as a link between residents and the community’s opportunities. “I think we have to prioritize the things that are smaller, and the things that you do more consistently,” Murphy-Watson said. “We really see ourselves as just the facilitator to community-building, and allowing the neighbors to really take ownership and pride in what they’ve become, and could become.”

So while events like Spooktacular and this spring’s Earth Day celebration provide positive reinforcement, Murphy-Watson wants to “change the ownership dynamic” as neighbors get involved: “I want them to feel like this is something that has been done so we know it’s possible—and now, how can we do it together?” she said. “People are happy; people want to help; people want to be involved. And you know, that’s all I can ask for. We set the example with the community for the things we want to see, and for the goals and the priorities we want to have.”

When asked what makes her proudest about her work at LinkSTL, Murphy-Watson circled back to this theme, reflecting on the connections that the organization’s programs have developed to involve residents in building community. Many participants in LinkSTL’s summer camp, for example, came from different schools. But Murphy-Watson said she now sees many of those kids spending time together in the neighborhood. LinkSTL has also been working with residents on economic development and financial literacy initiatives, helping them to see how opportunities like homeownership might be within their reach, even if that had never seemed possible to them before. “We’re just providing them with the encouragement,” Murphy-Watson said. “We’re saying, ‘You can do this.’ Because some are thinking, ‘Why me? This isn’t for me.’ But no, it’s for you if you want it to be.”

That type of empowerment is at the heart of what LinkSTL hopes to continue building in Hyde Park. “It starts with the people, and it will end with the people,” Murphy-Watson said. “That’s simple, but I think it’s underrated. The more work and energy and time people put into people, the better we will be as a society.”

For Murphy-Watson, that mission is deeply personal. “I’m proud of the neighborhood, and I’m proud of the people in the neighborhood,” she said. “Which is why I made the decision to move into the neighborhood. I think that Hyde Park is a hidden jewel. I really believe that.”

To view photos from Spooktacular, click here.

Written by Jenny Connelly-Bowen, CBN Graduate Research Assistant

A Holistic, Community-Based Approach to Health: Addressing Toxic Stress and Trauma

By Heidi B. Miller, M.D

Dr. Heidi Miller is a primary care physician and policy advocate who has focused her career on assuring high quality, trauma-informed, equitable access to healthcare for our most vulnerable patients. She trained at Yale University and Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She serves as a primary care doctor at Family Care Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center in St. Louis. Dr. Miller is also the Medical Director for the Gateway to Better Health Program, which serves 20,000 uninsured patients via the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, an organization that has also spearheaded the Alive and Well STL initiative to reduce the community-wide impact of toxic stress and trauma.

Dr. Miller consults for the St. Louis Integrated Health Network and the Siteman Cancer Center’s Breast Cancer Partnership. She was appointed by the Missouri Governor to the Oversight Committee for Medicaid, served on the Missouri Medical Home Collaborative Steering Committee that oversaw the state-wide implementation of the Patient-Centered Medical Home model, and has been invited repeatedly to testify to the Missouri House and Senate Committees on health policies. Dr. Miller was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal as one of its “40 Under 40” honorees.

In addressing health issues, too often we focus on individual behaviors, such as eating unhealthy food or neglecting to take prescribed medication. This can lead us to blame people for their poor health. But many individuals experience toxic stress and trauma that powerfully shape the choices they make. We need a more holistic, community-based approach to health.

In medicine, universal precautions are used as a means to ensure the safety of both our patients and staff. We wear gloves while drawing blood for all patients, regardless of which patients have contagious conditions. Medicine is not alone in this approach—all industries utilize safety measures: hard hats in construction zones and flashers for truck drivers carrying wide payloads. These universal precautions are a good start at protecting the well-being of those we serve and those providing the service, but we need to consider these as just the beginning if we’re going to address toxic stress and trauma in our community.

Physicians traditionally learn to take the human body and break it down into organ systems, tissues, and cells. However, when we only look at a single piece, we lose sight of the larger puzzle—the whole. For example, the customary approach for a patient with diabetes is to test for elevated blood sugar levels and write a prescription for insulin to correct the imbalance. When we merely focus on balancing blood sugar levels, however, we can overlook a much larger medical concern, such as debilitating stress. To support the overall health and well-being of patients, the entirety of a person’s body and experiences must be considered, not just a single symptom or laboratory test.

After enduring a detailed history and physical examination, some patients may seem inattentive when their clinician explains their diagnosis and provides guidance on how to take their medications, what foods to avoid, and what lifestyle changes to make. In these instances, false assumptions could be made about patients simply not caring about their own health. Through a lens of toxic stress and trauma, however, we can appreciate that much more is happening in this moment. Possibly this patient is concerned about finding the means to pay for their medications, worried that with everything else going on in their lives that there is no time to take care of themselves, or scared of what the future may hold.

Too often we see a behavior—the customer that’s yelling at the service representative or the cousin who always drinks—and we assign judgement based on that behavior. When simply focusing on the behavior, one may easily assume that a person is bad or deviant. If we reduce a person to the sum of his or her behaviors, we fail to see the person as a whole and fail to acknowledge the toxic stress or trauma the individual has experienced.

To best serve patients and support our fellow community members, we have to stop thinking, “What’s wrong with you?” and instead ask “What happened to you?” By changing the question, we acknowledge that the behavior of an individual, much like the symptom in a patient, is part of a larger story. If we want to effectively make change in our community, we need to change the question in each and every interaction we have.

Alive and Well STL, an initiative of the St. Louis Regional Health Commission, is working to build this dialogue. Challenge yourself: next time you think, “What’s wrong with you?”, consider instead “What happened to you?” Notice if this changes how you feel about the situation. Notice if your understanding of underlying toxic stress or trauma affects how you respond.

If you want to learn more about how you can get involved in making St. Louis a more supportive place to live, please visit Alive and Well’s website: www.aliveandwellstl.com.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Pooled Purchasing: Leveraging Economies Of Scale For Efficiency And Impact

By Constance Siu

Constance Siu is Master of Social Work candidate at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis concentrating in Social and Economic Development (Domestic). Prior to attending the Brown School in 2015, she lived in Kansas City and worked at a child development center. Constance graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Philosophy. Upon graduation, she plans to pursue a career in community development in St. Louis.

Community building organizations, simply put, are having a difficult time sustaining themselves financially. Not only are many unable to support themselves for an extended period of time on reserves alone, but many are operating on a deficit. With fewer funding streams supporting operational costs as many foundations move to a more issue- or place-based approach, there is a need for organizations to start thinking more strategically and collaboratively about the future in order to survive and thrive.

The need to collaborate at an operational level drove the Community Builders Network to look for ways to support their members in this area, giving way to the inception of the Professional Services Support Program. Modeled after a similar program in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Professional Services Support Program borrows the basic value proposition from companies like Costco where members access items and services in a pooled manner allowing for discounted rates.

Sounds simple, right? Well, that’s because it is! However, for such a simple model, it isn’t as widespread in the nonprofit realm as you might think—especially since a model such as this has immense benefits for its participants.

Even for St. Louis, this idea is not a particularly innovative one. The Chesterfield Cooperative has already been practicing this model through their bulk rock salt purchases. Working with Beyond Housing and the Chesterfield Cooperative, the 24:1 Community was able to join the Cooperative, resulting in a 40 percent decrease in rock salt costs. With that success, the same collaborative approach was taken with trash collection as smaller communities got to piggyback off larger trash contracts, which again cut costs drastically.

By working together and pooling together their collective weight, not only are smaller groups able to leverage their newfound economy of scale for cost reduction, but doing so also allows for increased operational efficiency and effectiveness.

A simple example of this is in office supplies and printing. Often overlooked as a significant operational expense, as a $20 stapler may not seem like a big difference compared to a $15 stapler, most organizations currently either order these items online or make emergency trips to regular retail stores, costing organizations precious time and human capital as people are doing things that are not mission-centered. By participating in a pooled purchasing program, not only can organizations have a personal account manager take care of their office supplies and printing, but it can also save them those $5 increments that will add up over time.

Over the last few weeks, as I’ve worked on establishing this program, I’ve realized that the benefits of the Professional Services Support Program are so much more than the cost savings that nonprofits can gain. Arguably more important is that participation in pooled purchasing will increase professionalism, efficiency, and the ability to attract financial support from nontraditional funding streams, such as banks and private foundations.

One area where nontraditional funding streams can be leveraged to support a pooled purchasing program would be in accounting. Instead of trying to fit budgeting into the busy day-to-day schedule of running an organization and relying on basic budgeting knowledge probably gained from either a budget 101 course at some point or from balancing our own checkbooks, nonprofits can take advantage of professional accounting services. Not only does this add a sense of professionalism and credibility to their finances, but it also introduces another layer of control as another set of eyes are added to the mix. With a more transparent and professionally managed budget, potential funders will be able to see that organizations they are supporting have more fiscal controls and understand where each dollar is going and how effective each dollar is in terms of mission fulfillment. This makes these organizations safer and more trustworthy investments.

All in all, by collaborating and purchasing services and goods in a pooled manner, organizations can increase their transparency to funders and gain a better understanding of their operational costs, allowing for more funds and time to be spent on mission-fulfilling activities.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Community Development at Work: DeSales Community Housing Corporation

Opportunity Knocks: DeSales Community Housing Corporation Continues to Grow its Property Management Business

When faced with competing the demands of emerging opportunities and strategic planning, DeSales Community Housing Corporation in South St. Louis City has adopted a flexible approach.

As DeSales Executive Director Tom Pickel puts it, “opportunity doesn’t always come just as you want it, when you want it,” especially when you’re working to grow your organization’s sustainability and resilience.

The DeSales team’s most recent accomplishment has the potential to help them do that. Earlier this year, DeSales was approached by the leadership of the St. Louis Equity Fund (SLEFI) to discuss Community Asset Management Company (CAMCO), a property management company SLEFI had formed 20 years before. SLEFI wanted to know if DeSales would be interested in taking over management of CAMCO’s portfolio of about 1,100 units that are concentrated primarily in St. Louis City.

This isn’t the first time that DeSales’ property management expertise has drawn the attention of community stakeholders. The non-profit, 501(c)(3) community development corporation (CDC) was founded in 1976 to promote investment in the Fox Park and Tower Grove East neighborhoods. DeSales began developing housing during the 1990s, but it didn’t enter the property management business until 2005, when it formed Fox Grove Management. Fox Grove was created to manage DeSales’ own portfolio of about 200 apartments.

A few years later, then-President of Northside Community Housing, Inc. (NCHI) Ernecia Coles asked DeSales if Fox Grove could take over the management of NCHI’s properties in The Ville neighborhood as well. DeSales wasn’t quite ready to start managing for other organizations at that point, but when Coles asked again in 2009, they agreed. Fox Grove now manages over 190 units for NCHI. As of early October, Fox Grove had a total of just over 550 units under management.

So when SLEFI approached DeSales this year, Pickel knew immediately that taking on the CAMCO portfolio would mean big changes for the CDC. After the deal closed on October 14th, DeSales/Fox Grove tripled in size “literally overnight,” Pickel said. “We went from managing about 550 units to over 1,600 units, and our total staffing went from 15 to 46.”

This was not a decision that DeSales made lightly. Staff and board members talked at length about what the acquisition would mean for the organization. One of the deciding factors was Pickel’s review of the opportunity with Stan Presson, Fox Grove’s Director of Property Management. “Stan is a great part of our team,” Pickel said. “He has a great reputation in this business. And I thought, if Stan doesn’t want to do this, we’re not going to do it.”

But Presson was receptive to the idea. “He realizes, as much or more than I do, that if we’re going to have a sustainable, resilient organization, it’s going to have to get bigger,” Pickel explained.

Also aiding in the decision was the presence of DeSales’ Controller, Lisette Ortega-Vidal. She came to work for DeSales in 2015 after serving as CAMCO’s Accounting Manager for several years. “Lisette has great knowledge of the organization, the properties, and the people at CAMCO,” Pickel said. “That was an advantage for us.”

Additional revenue from the expanded management company could eventually allow DeSales to expand some of its programming in other focus areas, like community health. It could also make it easier to recruit, promote, and retain good staff members.

There are deeper reasons DeSales decided to move into the property management business in the first place. As Pickel likes to put it, “good property management iscommunity development,” especially in the kinds of neighborhoods where DeSales works, which have a lot of multifamily housing. Management of such properties is a critical function that is all too often overlooked.

Venturing into housing development and management has also enabled DeSales to make a bigger contribution in the neighborhoods it serves. “We’re able to capture some of the wealth and revenue that a neighborhood—even a low-income neighborhood—generates and reinvest that in the neighborhood,” Pickel explained.

So far, the expansion of Fox Grove Management seems to be going well. Pickel is taking the transition one step at a time. “When people congratulate me, I say, ‘come back in about 12 months and I’ll let you know whether we deserve congratulation or condolences,'” he joked. But Pickel and the rest of the DeSales team are confident that the change makes strategic sense for the organization. He said that surprise opportunities like this one are a good reason for organizations to retain a measure of flexibility when it comes to strategic planning: it can be hard to predict how the external environment might change tomorrow, let alone five years down the road.

Written by Jenny Connelly-Bowen, CBN Graduate Research Assistant

All Low- and Moderate-Income Areas Are Not Created Equal

By Mike Eggleston

This article was originally published in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s quarterly newsletter, Bridges.

Mike is a Senior Community Development Specialist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In this role, he provides financial institutions, community based organizations and government entities tools to effectively address community development issues affecting economically vulnerable individuals and communities. Mike serves on the Board of Directors at the Incarnate Word Foundation.

There are stark disparities in consumer credit in low- and-moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods across United States metropolitan areas (MSAs), and their full impact on residents’ access to opportunity is not currently accounted for under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Consider George, who lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and Francine, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Both live in an LMI neighborhood, where the median income is 80 percent of the average median income in the metro area or state. Each is looking to buy a car, to reduce their commute time to work and to allow them more child care options for their young children.

Like many in his neighborhood, George has poor credit. As a result, he is not able to secure financing from a financial institution to buy a car. Francine, however, is among the vast majority of people in her neighborhood who have good credit—so she has no trouble securing a car loan from a bank.

This story plays out among MSAs across the country in over 200 areas where data is available. Boulder, Colorado is on one end of the spectrum, where 35.9 percent of the population in LMI neighborhoods is credit constrained: that is, they have poor, fair, or no credit history. On the other end in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly eight out of every 10 people in LMI neighborhoods are credit constrained. This disparity has big implications for both neighborhood residents and the regulated financial institutions that serve them, thanks to the obligations these institutions face under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).

Before going further, it’s worth noting some additional observations. LMI neighborhoods where residents have better credit tend to have a larger percentage of white occupants. They are usually located in the East, West, and parts of the upper Midwest, and tend to have relatively low poverty rates. LMI neighborhoods where residents with poor credit predominate tend to have a larger share of African-American occupants. They are usually located in the South and tend to have relatively high poverty rates. In fact, among the ten MSAs where people living in LMI neighborhoods have the poorest credit, the average poverty rate is 68 percent higher than the average poverty rate of the ten MSAs where people living in LMI neighborhoods have the best credit. Jackson, Mississippi, Shreveport, Louisiana, and Montgomery, Alabama all fall into this category.

In sum, the credit profiles of people living in LMI neighborhoods across the country vary significantly. Why should that matter? There are at least two groups for whom this matters a great deal.

A good credit profile can be the make-or-break detail that determines someone’s ability to get a mortgage, car loan, or student loan. It can also be a factor in whether someone can rent an apartment, in how much insurance costs, and in securing employment. In short, good credit can signal whether someone’s financial situation is on the right track. This can be especially powerful for someone living in an LMI neighborhood, where opportunities to improve life circumstances can be scarce. That’s why many nonprofit organizations throughout the country—sometimes in partnership with bank representatives—work with people to improve their credit profiles. It’s also why some community-based organizations (like Justine Petersen, headquartered in St. Louis) view credit as an asset.

Depending on their size, regulated financial institutions are required to comply with the CRA by meeting certain thresholds for investments, loans, and service in LMI neighborhoods. Currently, the credit profile of a bank’s assessment area—which may include an entire MSA or just part of it—is not weighed as a factor when determining whether a bank is meeting CRA obligations. But maybe it should be. As the data illustrates, a bank operating in Madison, Wisconsin will have a much easier time finding qualified borrowers in LMI neighborhoods than a bank in Memphis, Tennessee. A bank operating in both metro areas must work twice as hard to find qualified borrowers in Memphis.

This raises important questions about the appropriate role of the CRA in promoting fair and impartial access to credit in underserved communities. Should extra weight be given to loans and investments made in LMI areas where more people are credit constrained? How can the CRA’s service test better encourage credit building in LMI areas where more people are credit constrained? Can other measures, such as the poverty rate, complement area median income to select CRA target populations?

For the first time, consumer credit data for LMI areas in 200-plus MSAs is publicly available via the Consumer Credit Explorer, thanks to Equifax and the Federal Reserve banks of Minneapolis, New York and Philadelphia. Using this data, researchers will soon be able to better understand why LMI neighborhoods in one MSA have drastically different credit profiles from LMI neighborhoods in other MSAs. Until that is sorted out, LMI neighborhood residents like Francine in MSAs such as Madison, Boulder, and San Jose will have a much better shot at accessing credit—and opportunity—than LMI neighborhood residents like George in MSAs such as Montgomery, Memphis and Jackson.

Data: FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax Data (12/1/2015), tabulated by the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and Minneapolis and accessed via the Consumer Credit Explorer.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Immigrants Can Help to Revitalize Inner Cities in the 21st Century

By Cyril D. Loum

Cyril D. Loum is the Executive Director of Caring Ministries, Inc. (CMI). He has been actively involved in working with the development of the St. Louis community since the beginning of 2011, after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In 2011, he served as a Federal Intern for the First District of St. Louis while attaining his second bachelor’s in Communication. In 2014, Cyril proceeded to earn a Master of Arts in Legal Studies and became a certified paralegal.

In recent years, many immigrants and refugees have been moving to the United States to be part of the American Dream. The American Dream that “every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative” has changed our communities, especially our inner cities. Our inner cities now have large concentrations of immigrants who contribute to the success of many of the most economically vibrant U.S. cities. In response to this trend, Caring Ministries, Inc. (CMI) was established to reinforce the positive trends of immigrant influxes to revamp inner-city communities.

The process of establishing strong communities with immigrants and Americans starts with building strong relationships with various neighborhood leaders. Immigrants need to have conversations about the safety of neighborhoods and school systems. Other issues that the immigrant population faces are the necessary demands from extended family members living abroad and the fragmented family unit.

To build vibrant immigrant communities, you need a holistic approach that addresses social, spiritual, physical and economic needs. For immigrants, the social aspects include tight-knit neighborhood associations. Immigrants see these neighborhoods as a kind of extended family, which they can depend on for assistance in times of need. This social aspect helps the families relate to their community, while giving them the opportunity to build new relationships. Often coming out of an oral tradition, immigrants understand intuitively the idea that “it takes a village to raise a child.”

One of the ways these bonds are established is through shared faith. Regardless of origin country, immigrants entering the U.S. usually identify themselves as spiritual people. When dealing with the immigrant population, one difference from Americans is that they are open to talking about their faith. As we work on these communities, we have noticed that the sentimental feelings of spirituality within the immigrant population and community developers can build a sense of trust.

Next, when dealing with the physical nature of neighborhoods, we need to build communities where shopping centers and bus lines are in close in proximity to homes. This is important because most immigrants are accustomed to having local community grocery stores, schools, places of worship, parks, and other community amenities close to their homes. Many immigrants moving to the U.S. were already homeowners. The housing culture of immigrants is based on the idea that homeownership enables families to pass on tangible resources to the next generation. Immigrants are not commonly accustomed to apartments. Perhaps this is the cause of minor ghettos in St. Louis. Nevertheless, homeownership is difficult for immigrants in the United States, because they use a different method of homeownership from their country of origin. In the U.S., we use financing through banking institutions, and the approval of financing is based on credit scores. In their country of origin, immigrants often used the sole capital of an individual to either build or purchase their homes. However, when given the opportunity in the U.S., immigrants want to become homeowners.

Economically, immigrants want to live in communities where the job market is strong and homes are inexpensive. These two specifics give immigrants the opportunity to achieve the American Dream by using their willingness to work hard to achieve the necessary things that make them comfortable. Jobs are very important to this population. They are willing to put in the time and effort once their financial needs are met. Immigrants are generally frugal in their financial lifestyle. In fact, this population believes in saving and helping people in need, who then can turn around and assist them some day. Immigrants might be seen as a demographic that is struggling financially, but once acquainted with the financial system, they become some of the most financially secure people in our society. This is why some of the most vibrant inner cities are highly populated by immigrants.

I encourage individuals working in community development to think about immigrants as a valuable resource for building vibrant communities.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Crystallizing A Multi-Faceted Approach To Community Development

By Sylvester Brown, Jr.

This column was originally published on the author’s blog.

Sylvester Brown, Jr. is a writer, community activist and the executive director of the Sweet Potato Project, a St. Louis-based program dedicated to teaching at-risk youth entrepreneurial skills through agriculture and product development. 

On Friday, September 9th, I was awarded the 2016 MLK Legacy Award for “Outstanding Service in the Community.” About four other individuals were also honored during Beloved Streets of America‘s first annual MLK Legacy Dinner. It’s always nice to be recognized for trying to do something positive, but for me, the true reward was the event itself and the realization that I am a part of a game-changing group with unrecognized potential.

I have to be honest: I’ve been besieged with doubt about the Sweet Potato Project (SPP). Our mission is basic but powerful. For the past five years, we’ve been working with at-risk teens to show them how to become self-sufficient and make money in their own neighborhoods. Students plant produce on vacant lots, and after harvesting they turn produce into products.

Simple, right?

Our bigger mission is to help low-income people gain access to vacant lots, grow food and develop ways to sell through farmer’s markets, direct delivery or by selling food-based products like our sweet potato cookies. If hundreds of poor folk are growing and thousands are buying from local urban farmers, we have a shot at creating a real economic engine in North St. Louis.

Powerful, right?

Well, not so much—at least not for SPP. Our funding has decreased significantly within the past two years. Our students made it through the summer, with the help of a few individuals who hosted fundraisers for us. However, it’s become painfully obvious that we can’t continue operating with a tiny staff and limited funds on a shoestring budget.

So that was the sort of funk I was in when I arrived at the MLK Legacy Dinner. The real reward that evening came in the form of inspiration through the activities of other awardees and some extraordinary ordinary people I know who are also striving to enact social and economic change in the black community.

My reward that night was the crystallization of a major multi-faceted approach to community development. After accepting my award, I asked the audience to dream with me. Imagine a vibrant and refurbished MLK (Beloved Streets of America), I said, where people own homes (Better Family Life); with dozens of black-owned storefronts (the Center for the Acceleration of African-American Business) in an area like the University City Loop where art and culture is part of the neighborhood’s fabric (Portfolio Gallery and Education Center); where economically empowered landowners grow food that supplies the entire region (the Sweet Potato Project).

I was also reminded of the five or so food-related entities already working in the Greater Ville area on or near MLK Boulevard. St. Louis University was recently awarded a USDA grant to help fund these agencies. SPP is a part of that collaborative. Project plans include a food market, industrial kitchen to develop “value-added” food products and more urban farms in the area. If more funds were directed to these entities and organizations recognized at the Beloved Streets event, we’d have a huge swath of MLK in North St. Louis dedicated to empowering low-income youth and adults, job creation, home and land ownership and small business growth—which can all lead to neighborhood safety and sustainability.

There are basically two obstacles that impede this grand vision. First, as Malik Ahmed noted after he and Deborah received their awards, black organizations must collaborate, strategize and go after funding as a collective. The second challenge is the lack of vision among politicians, city planners, nonprofit funders and corporations. St. Louis leaders seem to have one model for community development: “Let’s give these rich guys and powerful entities millions upon millions in state, local and federal tax breaks and public money and, hopefully, their success will trickle down to people in poor communities.”

Politicians have exuberantly signed off on developments such as the $16 million failed attempt to keep the Rams in St. Louis along with the billion dollars to build them a new football stadium. Then there’s Paul McKee’s Northside Regeneration project, which will receive up to $390 million in tax-increment financing. The estimated $2.1 billion Cortex District and the $1.75 billion National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s headquarters are all buoyed by tax incentives, deferred taxes and public money.

This is all well and good, I suppose, but if we’re leveraging the city’s tax base for the rich, implementing gentrification in North St. Louis and short-changing public schools dependent on tax dollars, shouldn’t a fraction of the public money go to sacrificing, struggling black organizations that are dedicated to empowering residents, educating young people and building businesses within the most disadvantaged and ignored areas of our city?

When it comes to sharing public money and investing in the black community, we’re up against a decades-old, stubborn, segregationist mindset in St. Louis. Still, I have hope. Can politicians—particularly black and progressive politicians—simply call for a time-out on doling out dollars to the rich and powerful? Can’t they insist on a little quid-pro-quo for their loyalty and demand that elitist city planners include black organizations in the mix? If those of us dedicated to enacting real, people-centered change worked together, perhaps we can help introduce a new template for development that actually empowers people to do-for-self economically.

These things and more are the fruits of an award that emphasized the potential rewards right here, today, within our midst.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

St. Louis Needs More Cross-Community Conversation

By Kevin McKinney

Kevin McKinney is the Executive Director of the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO). He has eighteen years of experience in housing and urban development. Prior to joining SLACO, Kevin spent nine years as Mayor and a member of the Board of Aldermen in Jonesborough, Tennessee and three years serving in leadership roles for the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association in St. Louis. Since 2003, Kevin has been the owner of Housing 202 Ltd., serving as a consultant for faith-based and non-profit organizations in Missouri and nationwide. He has been involved with the development of eight senior housing facilities and two housing developments for persons with disabilities. Kevin has been named one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” won the Centurion Award for Outstanding Contribution in Human Rights, and completed the FOCUS St. Louis Impact St. Louis Leadership Program. He and his wife Kimberly are residents of the Shaw neighborhood. Kevin is a board member of the South City YMCA and the Friends of Tower Grove Park and serves as the 1st Vice President of the Garden District Commission.

Could the contention and turmoil that surfaced as a result of Ferguson locally and in cities like Cincinnati and Dallas nationally result in opportunities to bridge the racial divide? In order to move forward and build a stronger community, I believe it is imperative that we learn to appreciate each other regardless of zip code.

Many have addressed the problems we have hearing and understanding each other across the St. Louis region’s many boundaries. St. Louis is highly segregated along race lines and fragmented in its sense of community identity. These barriers limit our access to common frameworks that might otherwise help us relate to each other and talk across community borders.

I believe a new program from the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO), Neighborhoods United for Change, can help bridge these divides. SLACO has partnered with CREA (the Civil Rights Enforcement Agency of the City of St. Louis) and the City’s Neighborhood Stabilization Team to build a robust platform for discussing racial and social equity. Doug Bram, winner of the “250 Ways to Improve Your Neighborhood” contest (as voted by participants in the 2014 SLACO Regional Neighborhood Conference) originated this idea before it was advanced by then-Executive Director of SLACO, Nancy Thompson. SLACO has a history of inclusiveness—we specialize in providing opportunities for neighborhoods to learn from and network with each other to create a desirable urban environment. SLACO’s 30 member neighborhoods represent over 33 percent of the City’s population.

Neighborhoods United for Change will allow people to interact across invisible community lines. Participants from one SLACO community will tour another St. Louis neighborhood to gain insight about its strengths, successes, and challenges. Residents from one part of the city will have a chance to see how fellow St. Louisans from other neighborhoods live. The program provides a platform for members of our community to meet one another, visit the places they call home, learn about their everyday experiences firsthand, and grow to understand each other more completely. It creates an opportunity for people to connect based on similarities, while reinforcing mutual respect for differences.

The program’s kickoff events, which start this month, will pair two neighborhoods for tours, lunch, and conversation. SLACO member neighborhoods Princeton Heights, Forest Park Southeast, West End, Tower Grove East, Holly Hills, Lewis Place/Visitation Park, Fairground, West Pine/Laclede, Tower Grove Heights, and Shaw will be participating, along with non-SLACO member neighborhoods Bevo Mill, Jeff-Vander-Lou, College Hill, and Baden. Pairs of neighborhoods will plan and execute the events together with support from SLACO, CREA, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Team.

After the kickoff, SLACO, facilitators, and partners will support activities that broaden and build on the relationships developed by the paired neighborhoods. We aim to enrich recurring activities with a new element: the chance to see one’s own area through someone else’s eyes.

We need more programs that encourage this type of meaningful connection and tap into shared growth potential. At the end of the day, no matter where we live, we’re not that different from each other. We all want similar things for our community: the option to live in a welcoming, safe neighborhood; access to good jobs; high-quality schools for our children; and the chance to pursue opportunities and increase the standard of living for our families. Neighborhoods United for Change will encourage participants to form friendships along common lines like these. We can all help build a better St. Louis by cultivating more cross-community conversation.

Articles in “From the Field” represent the opinions of the author only and do not represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis or the University of Missouri-St. Louis.