Starting with This House...Introducing In the Black Fellows Program

It was my senior year of college and I confessed to my mother that I wanted to go into full-time ministry. “I want to help our community,” I cried to my mother, a hard working immigrant who had invested thousands in my education up until that point. Her response to my cry to help our neighborhood?

“Well, you start with this house.”

See, like many single working parents, my mother understood that money could buy you a measure of contentment. It may be altruistic to pretend money has no bearing on happiness, but those without it, often beg to differ. When you have an experience of poverty, especially in the Land of Opportunity (America), it can feel like a mark against your character. To add insult to injury, being part of the working poor often means working twice as hard and earning half as much. The modern, but now dated, saying that “Beyonce has the same 24 hours as you do,” becomes hard to swallow when you are working 16 hour shifts to keep a roof over your head. My mother knew the feeling, and wanted something different for her child.

This captures the essence of economic mobility — the ability to move out of poverty in one generation. Though we, at Cornerstone CDC, respect the fact that it’ll take more than emergency savings to heal from money trauma and break through generational curses, we see it as a seed.

The “In the Black” Fellows program is a 9-month matching savings program for the mothers and babies of the West End & Visitation Park. It is a love letter of sorts to those want to “start with this house,” and need a little boost on their journey to financial wholeness.

I did end up doing full-time ministry, and was able to explain the “In the Black” Fellows program to my mother who is here visiting from out of town, and you know what she said?

“Dang, I wish I lived in your community.”

So, to the mothers who are also dreamers, we encourage you to check out the “In the Black” Fellows program.

The West End should not grow without you.

The Executive Director, Monique, being cradled by her young mother, the hard working dreamer.

Remembering the Wonder...a 2023 Recap

I’m confident the first wonder may be…where have you been Monique? What’s up with the lack of blog posts? but There have been so many delicious moments this year, I have to admit: it has not been for lack of content. It has been for lack of time.

Well, at least, lack of prioritizing this time.

In my faith community, we recognize time as a construct created for us, and not just working against us. It is a resource that though seemingly scare, we can create more of. How? By living in abundance. We create more time when we pray, we create more time when we ask God to help us discern the times and the seasons (as my pastor often says),and we create more time when we chose to slow down. It does not always feel that way. The rush and the hustle of the work may make us feel like the opposite. Slowing down, then, can feel like you are wasting time, but I a reminded today, that by faith, that is simply not true.

As I pause to personally celebrate and honor this season of wonder,  I am yet mesmerized by what God allowed this small ministry to accomplish in 2023 partially because it was filled with lots of firsts. Taking time to reflect on what happened forces me to see His glory. It allows me to enter into His presence with the understanding that this work, when ceded to Him, becomes His work, and with God all things are possible. It makes me feel like though I cannot do it all, I do not have to. I have access to divine help including a wonderful team of co-laborers in my board of directors, teammates, volunteers, consultants, funders, donors, and residents.

That said, I want to dedicate this blog post to the wonder that happens in reflection. It is because of the babe who we honor in my faith tradition as not only the King and the Lamb, but also, the Prince of Peace and Wonderful Counselor. It was Him who guided us along this journey, and Him who deserves the glory if even a bit of it was good.

Please consider this your wrap up and recap cap of what was missed…

2023 Wonderful Recap

The City of St. Louis unanimously approved the weCollab West End/Visitation Park Resident-Led Reinvestment Plan, one of the first-ever completely resident-led reinvestment plans for a neighborhood, after four years of residents’ tireless work and true leadership.   In addition, Cornerstone CDC received our very first industry recognition alongside residents for leading the engagement effort, accepting the global 2023 Charter Merit Award from the Congress of the New Urbanism.  What's more, we have continued to focus on our primary approach to poverty alleviation: providing affordable rental housing, where we completed seven (7) partial renovations to keep our rentals both affordable and beautiful for our working families.  We have also built new capacity to thrive, expanding to a team of six (including two full-time AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers). We were also awarded our first set of federal grants, one of which will be used to turn an abandoned building into a new office space that will serve as a community hub for the resident-led work and a clubhouse for our apartment residents. Finally, we have launched our first economic empowerment program in partnership St. Louis Community Credit Union, "In the Black" Fellows. Whew! 

I am glad to have taken the time before I start my sabbath vacation to reflect on what God did with your help.

Because of that we also carry a depth of gratitude for the ways God has used you all as supporters to love on the West End. You each have affirmed our residents' dignity with your support, love, treasure, and time and we are grateful for how you have created time for us in abundance.

On Behalf of Cornerstone CDC...

Remember the Wonder and Enjoy the Pause,

Monique

The Drafted Neighborhood Plan (weCollab) is Here

y’all: The wecollab Plan is Here.

No, see you don’t understand how exciting this is: the Plan is Here. El Plano esta aqui! No? How about…プランはこちら (Puran wa kochira). Still nothing? Ok, Mpango uko Hapa. I joke, but seriously…this represents a historical moment that will shape the next 20 years of our neighborhood.

Residents of the West End/Visitation Park partnered with Yard & Company, Invest STL, and Cornerstone CDC to create a neighborhood plan, and the draft is finally ready for official city review and approval on June 14th.

Why is this Moment so Important?

Years ago… in 2018 the Year of Our Lord, residents started a planning process in the West End and Visitation Park. It was a simple time when no one locally outside of public health really appreciated the concept of “pandemic,” and it was unimaginable for corporations to have “Racial Equity and Justice” statements flashed across their websites for public consumption. It was then that we began to invite residents to imagine what was possible for their neighborhood, and have it become a drafted document to be adopted by the City of St. Louis as functional law. Hopes and dreams becoming law is incredibly powerful…and that is what the West End/Visitation Park plan represented.

Lisa Potts, Cornerstone CDC board member and resident leader, sharing her feedback, 2022.

Since the entire drafted plan to be presented to the City’s Planning Commission on June 14th is over 236 pages long, I thought I would highlight some of the key components.

weCollab Drafted Plan Highlights

Racial Equity is meaningfully centered in the plan

In many ways, racial equity is the primary framework and pursuit of the weCollab plan. It seeks to center well-being of residents, minimize the displacement, and monitor unintended consequences of development. In addition to the Racial Equity Proclamation and Statement, there are original Principles for Equitable Planning and Characteristics of Equitable Development crafted by the resident leaders of the plan.

Residents weren’t just included, residents’ Voice Built the Plan

In addition to the residents who made up the Steering Committee governing the planning process, resident voice framed up the entire plan. In all, 667 surveys were collected — saying nothing of the hundreds of informal conversations that shaped the content and provided the tone and cadence for the report, most clearly captured in the Project Themes and summary of survey responses.

West End residents completing a project survey used as content for the weCollab draft plan, June 2022.

There are Five Focus Areas for Development in west end/visitation park

This plan is intended to guide growth and development in an organized, meaningful, and equitable manner over the next 20 years and it starts with five focal areas in the neighborhood. These areas were selected for their geographic diversity, land availability, placemaking opportunities, and existing assets that might create momentum for the rest of the footprint. Those areas are Page and Blackstone, Hodiamont and Tracks, Maple and Goodfellow, and Delmar and DeBaliviere. It is important to note that we will not just focus on these cross streets, but also the immediate 5 to 10 block radius surrounding those intersections as well.

It is a Living Plan and an Actionable Plan…

The plan is the beginning of a series of new, fresh conversations with our neighbors once the plan is adopted. It is meant to guide development, but will continue to be responsive to the growing and changing desires of residents. That said, the plan is also packed with tactics for implementation across a 1 to 5 year timeframe and has a complementary work plan. That’s right: residents teamed up with technical experts and stakeholders to ensure that the plan is actionable.

it Honors the Need to Preserve Affordable Housing

Now this last one is included as a bit of a bias :-) Cornerstone CDC has maintained for decades that affordable housing is key to poverty alleviation and equity, and the residents agree. There is a call for innovative development, but it is coupled with a call to preserve affordability and intentional designing a plan to do so equitably. There is a Project Theme in fact that insists that the West End/Visitation Park must “Grow without Displacement” and that investment that welcomes new neighbors should not exist without intentional policies and actions in place that defend existing ones.

Hopes and dreams becoming law is incredibly powerful…and that is what the West End/Visitation Park plan represented.

Though this blog gives you just a taste of the drafted plan, we hope you take the time to read the full proposal. Cornerstone CDC stands with our neighbors as we eagerly await what is in store for our footprint. The plan is here!

Executive Director of Cornerstone CDC at weCollab kickoff, October 2021.

Read the full weCollab plan here.

What is Cornerstone CDC about?

Cornerstone CDC - How we work

Y’all a lot is going on right now in the Community Development space in St. Louis. I wanted to capture all of what I am learning and how Cornerstone CDC is growing so beautifully with your support, but first I thought I’d share what is it we do. Shoutout of our wonderful board member Nakischa Joseph for pulling together this video.

So much more to share with you all soon!

Healing-Centered Community Development: People > Buildings

I was at Northwest Coffee Roasting (because that’s what you do when you’re in community development in St. Louis), and I almost sPIT out my smoothie. No, not because the GreyHound isn’t absolutely delicious (because it is), but because I saw a man who’s books I consumed like candy in college.

Place Matters sat right next to Crabgrass Frontier on by desk. Those who know, know. Dr. Todd Swanstrom talked about how inequality was shaped through policy and how it showed up in our landscape.

Planning is a discipline I not only greatly respect and admire, its one I’ve come through. Though I studied the built environment and truly honor the importance of place and space, I’m finding more and more that people are where the true richness of the neighborhood exists, not buildings.

But, how do you tap into people as a resource in community development? Good question.

Cornerstone CDC has worked with community over the last few years to learn what that looks like. Y’all we didn’t always get it right. In fact, we discovered that going out in front exposes you to a lot of criticism, not always praise. But, we listened. We learned. And, in keeping with our operating principles, we tried to get it right. In the process, the community taught us that they didn’t want us to lead in the front, but invited us to the middle and the back. The middle: rolling up our sleeves and working alongside them as peers with equal voice, and the back: silently supporting them as they dove in the work, letting them know we had them covered.

Now, here we are, just a month away from the West End and Visitation Park Neighborhood Plan, known as weCollab, being revealed and Cornerstone CDC will not get the credit or the glory. It will not be heralded as an effort by a great organization who “led the locals to victory.” weCollab will be the residents’ win, totally, and we could not be prouder. Residents raised their hands to take on the role of visionary and laborer, collectively. Oh, there were disagreements, as peopling a process makes it messier, longer, and harder almost every time, but also, richer and more dynamic. What I’ve learned in seeing what these brilliant, passionate, sometimes tired, leaders leave their homes each Tuesday night was how to fight for hope against hope. They did things that felt small like asking a question, clicking on a link, or approving invoices, explicitly for their grandmother’s legacy, or for their son’s future. They sat there and worked even when people said it wouldn’t work, even when it literally told three years longs to complete and now, its here. It worked.

If this were a drinking game, you might be done if you sipped every time you read the word, “work.” It is because community development takes almost every kind of work you can muster: mental, physical, and emotional to complete. Beyond work, as a concept, it takes people. Specifically: the residents. People are what inspire it. People are who drive it. People make is more than an idea…they make it worth it.

Now that we have come to the end of our summer, I’ve settled on why Healing-Centered Community Development really matters. It matters because things, and people, now and again, break. Healing-Centered Community Development centers the solutions for repairing the breach where it hurts the most…with and in the people.

As Cornerstone CDC moves closer into its role as healer, co-laboring with folks and for folks, we plan to continue leveraging and celebrating each home and soul in the neighborhood, knowing that while we wait and work towards the change, as long as we ground in people…we have each other.

HEALING-CENTERED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: How a Cornerstone Apartment Healed (Estelle's Testimony).

As we continue our Healing-Centered Community Development Series, we turn to our primary ministry and operations: our affordable rental apartments. In place of my musings about the healing property of home, I asked Estelle, one of our latest residents, and new AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer, to share how coming to Cornerstone has been a part of her healing process.

The following is from Estelle.

Actual image of a Cornerstone CDC rental, 2021

“When I was asked to write about how my healing began like most things It sent a chill through me. I am usually the one looking to hide or be out of sight. I never wanted to be seen. However, because God has been working on my mental and spiritual healing. I started writing immediately. I never thought God had any use for me from my many mess-ups and insecurities. I had allowed peoples limited image and opinions on my outer appearance to become the prison I was keeping myself in. But shortly after I was saved and was filled with the Holy Ghost the prison was being torn down brick by brick. If God loved and accepted me as I am, that was all I needed to move forward. Then I heard about Cornerstone and it sounded like it was meant to be. God is my cornerstone.

He repaired my broken past and gave me a new life and it all began with my apartment. I had been broken but now I have the freedom to live just as I wanted just as God intended with freedom and joy and peace that I had never experienced before.

I have had many apartments and even owned a house, but when life has beaten you almost to death but God stepped in and showed that he had blessings in store for me too. I was eager and hungry to be independent and live on my own again. To be able to wash my dishes and clean my apartment and decorate with things that I love. It was the birth of a new hope like giving a new life to a dying man you just appreciate what you have and never want to take for granted your peace and happiness or what God has allowed in your life even what he has blocked from entering your life. As I look back over all that I have lost my son both parents and both siblings.

I can appreciate the quiet and simple life that I have now and the people that God has blessed me with. Getting here wasn't easy but being healed and made whole is incomparable to what I had before. My apartment is like me. Some old things and some even older things, some new things, some things from the thrift store and from family and discount/department stores. But its all mine and I love it. I am HOME!

Having a home and not having to live with others makes a world of difference. Whether I am happy or having a bad day there is comfort in knowing I have a home to come to at the end of my day here I am free to be me. No make-up if I choose crazy hair and my pajamas. It's the life.”

What is Healing-Centered Community Development? (Part I)

If community development is personal, political, and painful, it must also be able to be relational, ethical, and healing. Despite this, community development is often described as having a strict focus on bricks and mortar. There is often little room for the spiritual side of the work that drives and enlivens the fight for equity in our built spaces.

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Cornerstone Corporation, however, has always, always saw the work as both physical and spiritual. Starting as a housing ministry in 1976, we have looked to pattern our work after that of Jesus Christ, the carpenter, who built and healed in a remote town full of political unrest whose residents had been undermined by the elite. The question of whether anything good could come “out of Nazareth” or the West End or Hyde Park, or Jennings is one everyone in community development fights to answer full of faith. We sit with the hard work — some of which seems impossible to fund — and believe hope against hope that our efforts will not be in vain. It takes great courage and great conviction to continue in this fight, but we all see that it is well worth it.

Defining Healing-Centered Community Development

As a part of our summer series, we will share our definition of Healing-Centered Community Development as well as introduce you all to the incredible work of the Enterprise Community Partners authored by Chandra Christmas-Rouse, Brandon Jones, and Meghan Venable-Thomas and as well as Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s Healing Centered Community Engagement model.

The Healing-Centered Community Development framework is important because, similar to our Operating Principles, it sets the tone and direction of our approach. Because our theory of change is based on the idea that poverty alleviation must first start with stable housing, we understand that the pathway to thriving must be taken one step at a time. It is a healing process. We also believe poverty is a trauma that literally needs to be alleviated, or healed. Healing-Centered Community Development, for us, has looked like providing spaces that are safe. (Affordability is a form of safety.) Similarly, we desire that every Cornerstone resident live in the West End and Visitation Park in peace, which is why we stand with residents who are defining what they want their neighborhood to look like (and finally, on their own terms).

I will leave you with a quotation from Enterprise Community Partners’ Healing-Centered Community Development framework because it perfectly captures the essence of the definition and our pursuit:

Healing is not only health.

Healing can be applied to relationships – by listening, by building trust. Healing can be applied to money – by investing in community priorities, compensating people’s time, paying reparations. Healing can be applied to community - by celebrating local cultures, understanding context and history, and investing in the leadership of community members. Healing can be applied to policy - by creating renter protections, enforcing fair housing laws, bringing an anti-racist lens to criminal justice reform and advocating for people who are the most vulnerable in post-disaster funding allocations. Healing can be applied to housing development - by using creative and inclusive processes that prioritize resident voices, by creating structures for resident leadership in decision making, and by designing buildings and places that contribute positively to the health and well-being of residents and the neighborhood.

We are working to build an infrastructure that makes home good…and healing.

Special Feature: Design STL Highlights Cornerstone CDC

6031 Suburban Avenue, beautifully staged by Staging That Sells. Photography by Izaiah Johnson

One of Cornerstone CDC’s new commitments is to make home good. Its become core to our Theory of Change, and is quickly become something we repeat time and time again because it is true. When you walk into your home, how does it make you feel? Is there a sense of safety and warmth? Do you look forward to turning the key and entering your happy place.

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Though we are under no illusion that a new coat of paint and modern fixtures can fix what is truly broken, we do believe it helps. As a bonus to this month’s blog, we invite you to hear the words of Nicholas Phillips with St. Louis Magazine.

Our NOAH and the Ark: 6031 Suburban

Suburban Avenue is not very suburban at all. It is edged in by a vacant lot and an urban cornfield. The sidewalks are cracked and the adjacent alley way experiences the occasional West County dumping that is annoyingly common east of Skinker.

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It is also quiet. Generations of neighbors have lived on the block. Ms. LaDonna operates a beautiful daycare that would rival any facility in the city. Ms. Lillie has the sweetest smile. And the neighbor with the Jesus sign in the yard says the block has drastically changed from “the gangs and the gun violence” of the eighties. Things are looking up on Suburban, but there is a hope they can be even better. Neighbors are improving their properties and planting seasonal plants to brighten things. They have plans to work the land on their own terms. It’s a beautiful thing.

Despite the calm waters on Suburban, there is yet a sense that a storm is brewing neighborhood-wide.

After years of disinvestment, West End and Visitation Park is changing. New investors are eager to enter the neighborhood and “speculation” is happening. It is not always bad, but it can crowd out buyers who want to fix up the homes. The West End is also attracting investors who are flipping homes, which is awesome, but it also leaves less room for “Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing,” or NOAHs.

Speculation in real estate means people purchase property and hold on to it, with the hopes of reselling for a higher price. Flipping homes usually means improving the property and its value to make a profit.

Cornerstone CDC has historically built what is known as “Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing” (NOAHs). NOAHs are affordable housing units that older, low on amenities, and unsubsidized by federal funds. They ended up being naturally affordable, but often also undesirable. To the renter, that is.

To developers, NOAHs are often chock-full of potential. Folks are grabbing houses in need of great repair and flipping them into beautiful, reasonably priced (some times) rental offerings. The problem is: what is reasonably priced for the St. Louis market remains unaffordable to many would-be renters. There is a huge demand for affordable housing among residents making the least. In cases where housing is available, it is often substandard.

That is why this opening on Suburban Avenue is so special. We had a thought as an organization. What if we fixed up apartments, made them intentionally beautiful, provided the amenities they needed and did not cause rent to skyrocket? That’s the Cornerstone CDC model and challenge. This is why 6031 Suburban is such a big deal for us. Based on the generous support from donors, we were able to flip a home…and keep it affordable. Beautiful and affordable.

We have a long way to go in repairing the rest of our homes to keep them to that same standard, but it is becoming the proverbial mountain we are willing to die on. (Fun fact: “mountain you are willing to die on” is a Biblical reference to Christ dying on a hill…a little bible trivia for you.) Meaning: this is our fight and we believe its worth it. Cornerstone CDC is working to sustain options in the market for renters in the West End and that with dignity. Huge thank you to each of you who invested in this vision.

Noah looked foolish too, until it began to rain. Thank you for believing and standing with us to preserve affordable housing in the West End.

Our three-bedroom apartment will be $820/month. Find out more about gaps in the market through the St. Louis Affordable Housing Report Card.

To America in the Spring...

Though we experienced a preview of nice weather several times this year, I think its safe to say Spring is finally here. Neighbors are starting to come outside. You can hear the laughter and merriment.

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Yet it is also a somber time for those on Etzel because it was around this time last year that a 14-year old, Kathon Moore, decided to take a ride on his bike. Heartachingly, his life was cut short while on that ride right at our corner on Hodiamont.

Even in this tragedy, at least one thing is clear: Kathon was deeply and completely loved. His family, teachers, friends, and neighbors still talk about him and miss him. His life, though shortened, mattered and he impacted everyone he touched. Despite his charm, humor, and intelligence, this post is not necessarily in dedication to Kathon alone. It is to his mother, America.

America, appropriately bears the name of the country that inspired her to hope for more for her son. She is a sister, aunt, daughter, and friend. She is a caretaker by profession and nature. She is funny and sweet. She is tough and gentle. It is also clear that she is a mother. This post is to America, who is full of joy at the mention of her son, and also marred with pain. She told me this month is particularly difficult. It was a month with back-to-back celebrations as both her and Kathon’s birthday is one week apart, but now his death date is part of the period. America now stands in a powerful mix of bliss and misery in March, but there is beauty in how she stands. There is beauty in her decision to press through each day, even during the hard days…it is what I respect and appreciate about her. She has chosen to move forward and allows herself to feel hurt and joy at the mention of his name.

For better or worse, spring has a way of forcing newness on us all. The weather insists that there is hope. New grass pushes through the soil. Pollen is released in the air regardless of seasonal allergies. Whether you are ready or not, the season proclaims that winter is over and abruptly ushers in a new bright day. Time literally jumps forward without our permission, and we are all forced to move with it.

During this time of change, let us remember those who despite the freshness of the season are yet struggling with events of the past. They press into a new day, heroically, but the grief or agony of yesterday is near. People like America, who press forward and never deny the heartache, but who also look for spaces for joy, we salute you. May God make a place for gifts and your heart. There is yet a space for you. We marvel at your commitment to stand in pain and search for beauty.

We celebrate you and all you represent. America. Shannon. Shimica. Leslie. We see you mama.

Cornerstone CDC believes you have a future and a hope this spring and beyond. We’re praying with you.

Cornerstone Valentine’s day Prayer for the West End & Visitation Park

Cornerstone Corporation understands community development to be deeply spiritual work and because of the years of intentional disinvestment of Black spaces, it is also painful work.

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Specifically, we recognize that there are multiple devastations to belief systems core to promoting an agenda of change and partnership, with the demonic goal of eroding good-will, peace, equity, and hope. Too many are driven to a point of frustration or exhaustion. As this is a spiritual work, we need to pray. Here are my prayers for the work:

Jehovah Rophe repair the breach, restore (reveal) the path, and heal the brokenhearted. Specifically:

• Anoint Cornerstone Corporation to advance healing in the community side-by-side our local and regional partners as we acknowledge the harm we have done in the past and commit to steadily getting it right. Make our homes a sanctuary for safety, peace, and encouragement, and make us to consistently operate in a trustworthy, honorable, and faithful way.

• Break all patterns of disinvestment, distrust, mistrust, and deceit operating in the West End & Visitation Park neighborhood so that there can be a refreshing and loosening of a new season of collaboration, peace, and hope. Dry up the spirits that would erode good-will and strength. Sustain every worker (in particular the volunteer) who is seeking to dismantle systems of oppression; may they never tire, but give them rest.

• Bind every manner of violence in the West End & Visitation Park that would seek to destroy the work we all are called to do to bring healing to the land. Specifically, I call out:

  • Civic Violence that would stifle true partnership across institutions

  • Mental Violence that promotes disbelief that change is possible and any seat of community-trauma

  • Political Violence that would side-step, dismiss, or undermine resident voice, with an emphasis on that of the renter

  • Physical Violence attempting to manifest as death, accidents, theft, car crashes or self-harm

  • Material Violence against the built environment represented by decay or vacancy

Jehovah Rophe repair the breach, restore (reveal) the path, and heal the brokenhearted.

Monique Thomas, Executive Director, Cornerstone Corporation

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We want to hear from you. What are your hopes for the West End & Visitation Park?