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Invest STL Pilot Program focused on keeping residents Rooted in the community

Invest STL Pilot Program focused on keeping residents Rooted in the community

“This is not just a dream or something that is so far away that you can’t reach. This is happening in our community and it’s happening with people that are here.” – Star Stinson, West End resident and Rooted participant. Watch the Fox 2 story to learn more about Rooted: Cultivating Black Wealth in Place and how the new initiative from Invest STL is supporting residents’ ability to stay and grow in the place they call home.

 

Rooted initiative provides 20K to some city residents

Rooted initiative provides 20K to some city residents

The Rooted initiative hopes to create “a multi-generational approach to wealth building” by providing $20,000 to 50 participants that live in the city’s West End or Visitation Park neighborhoods who applied and qualified for the grant. Each participant will have access to free services including financial planning, credit counseling, and estate planning. Click here to read the whole article from the St. Louis American.

Can Wealth-Building Programs Both Prevent Displacement and Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap?

Can Wealth-Building Programs Both Prevent Displacement and Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap?

In recent years, the West End and Visitation Park neighborhoods of St. Louis have begun to see signs of gentrification. These historically Black communities are experiencing increased economic investment, rising rent and housing prices, and a growing white and higher-income population. Absent any intervention, these forces of economic development and chance could displace long-time Black residents.

However, one nonprofit community development intermediary and funder in St. Louis, Missouri, Invest STL, is piloting Rooted, Cultivating Black Wealth in Place, an initiative aimed at combating displacement in two historically Black neighborhoods. The Urban Institute is evaluating the program to assess its impact on displacement risk and wealth building. The analysis will also uncover financial planners’ role in helping beneficiaries pursue these outcomes. And if this pilot is successful, scaling it could help address the racial wealth gap more broadly. Click her to read the whole story from the Urban Institute’s blog Urban Wire.

To strengthen north St. Louis neighborhoods, program gives 50 families $20,000 each

To strengthen north St. Louis neighborhoods, program gives 50 families $20,000 each

“We entered this program to keep our home for our family,” Darius Franklin said. “We didn’t enter this program just so we could fix it up, make it look nice and get a check. This house is more than just monetary value to us.”

The 1906 home in the West End is owned by his grandfather and is home to multiple generations of family who see Rooted as an opportunity to protect and build upon their assets, to ensure that future generations can benefit from their family’s legacy and remain in their home on Oakley Place.

Rooted: Cultivating Black Wealth in Place is a new initiative developed through Invest STL’s work in policy design, activating and testing innovative approaches to longstanding challenges neighborhoods and residents face. Rooted is focused on helping West End and Visitation Park residents build wealth so that they can afford to stay and grow in their neighborhood. To learn more about Rooted and see pictures of the neighborhoods check out this article from STL Today – St. Louis Post-Dispatch, click here.

How West End residents took control of their community’s future development

How West End residents took control of their community’s future development

WeCollab hit a critical milestone in their journey to bring resident vision and leadership into their community’s planning and development conversation. On June 14, 2023, the WeCollab Neighborhood Plan was adopted by the City of St. Louis’ Planning Commission as a Neighborhood Plan and a supplement to the City’s Comprehensive Plan. On the heels of this historic moment, WeCollab steering committee member Lisa Potts and lead neighborhood ambassador April Walker, sat down with St. Louis On the Air to talk about their journey and what it means for the West End and Visitation Park neighborhoods. Invest STL’s executive director Dara Eskridge also joined the conversation on St. Louis Public Radio to share more about our organizations role in creating a neighborhood-level investment strategy that is both monetary and programmatic. Read more and access the on-air segment at: https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2023-06-16/how-west-end-residents-took-control-of-their-communitys-future-development