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New & Updates
St. Louis Neighborhood Storytelling Practice: A Collective Experience Rooted in People, Place, and Possibility
Every neighborhood holds stories that rarely make headlines. Those stories live on front porches and sidewalks, in family traditions and home gatherings, in memories passed from one generation to the next. They’re carried by the people who know the rhythm of the block, the names of neighborhood elders, the history…
Standing in the Gap: How the Northside Resilience Fund Came Together
On May 16, 2025, an EF3 tornado cut a 23-mile path through St. Louis City and County. The ensuing devastation left thousands of residents displaced, destroying more than 5,000 homes and businesses. The brunt of the destruction hit 19 North St. Louis City neighborhoods — Legacy Black communities from which…
Reflections on 2025: Practicing Our Principles
By: Dara Eskridge, CEO As an organization committed to a clear end date (2042), we are constantly viewing time in three directions: what we seeded in the past that we can nurture in the present to yield meaning in the future. Looking back, in 2024, I was nagged by the…
Introducing Invest STL’s Rooted Powerbook – A Blueprint for Place-based Wealth Building
April 29, 2025 At Invest STL, we identify, try, evaluate, and facilitate potential solutions to systemic issues facing predominantly Black neighborhoods, including displacement. In 2023, we set out to investigate if direct funds can help Black residents remain in their chosen community by increasing access to assets such as housing,…
Rooted in St. Louis: A New Approach to Building Black Wealth
April 8, 2025 For far too long, Black communities in St. Louis have faced systemic barriers to building and maintaining wealth. As neighborhoods undergo rapid change and gentrification, Black residents are often displaced or unable to secure the economic opportunities needed to thrive. Recognizing this challenge, our Invest STL Policy…
Reflections on 2024: Slow + Steady, Activation + Preparation
By: Dara Eskridge, CEO Quiet as it’s kept, we’ve been up to a lot at Invest STL. For those closest to us, you already know we have grown significantly since our first forming in 2012. During the height of the pandemic, we wholly embraced a more pointed mission to facilitate…
Resident Story Series | Vandeventer Neighborhood | Catherine Knights
As a descendant of Mississippi sharecroppers that made their journey to The Ville, one of St. Louis’ legacy Black neighborhoods, Catherine Knights has called seven STL neighborhoods home throughout her lifetime, though she is choosing to call Vandeventer home.
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:…
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…