Program areas at RBC
Crime & public safety: to work closely with public safety officials to reduce crime, improve safety, and provide needed support and improvement to law enforcement and neighborhood stabilization- st. louis county neighborhood revitalization: rbc organized a successful event in the county in a neighborhood with one of the highest poverty and homicide rates in the region. The event directly impacted students in the riverview gardens school district, with the project site two blocks away from the high school. Volunteers installed 75 ring video doorbells and 75 motion-activated lights in strategic residences throughout the neighborhood to help police solve violent crimes. - st. louis city neighborhood revitalization: rbc organized a highly successful event creating "peace park" in college hill, the only neighborhood in st. louis city without an official park. The event featured the most rbc members ever involved in a single neighborhood revitalization effort, doubling participation from 2022. The event garnered significant press including front page news in the st. louis post-dispatch, interviews on kmov, fox 2, ksdk, and a full page in the st. louis american. - expansion plan for clean up, build up: rbc created a plan to expand clean-up, build-up in 2024. Starting late spring 2024, the new model will continue our two large-scale community events in spring and fall but will also include bimonthly events with major utilities in the region to reduce violent crime by using data to target neighborhood improvements at the block level. - metrolink secure platform plan: worked with bi-state development president & ceo and general counsel to secure remaining contributions from the private sector's $10.5m investment and organized multiple stakeholder meetings to brief donors about project developments.- circuit attorney summit at rbc: helped organized meeting with the Missouri governor's chief of staff at rbc with circuit attorney gabe gore in his first week along with prosecuting attorneys from other counties in the region to create a plan to start processing the backlog of cases.- downtown anti-violence crime initiative: helped support communications and messaging for the initiative, which is one of the region's most effective crime interventions in 2023. - east-west gateway: rbc was represented at working group meetings at the ewg crime practicum to develop a Regional crime strategy. Advocated for rbc's interests during the process, leading to a favorable outcome for the region and organization. - attended doj project safe neighborhoods summit: invited by the u.s. attorney for the eastern district of Missouri to attend doj project safe neighborhoods summit in indianapolis in december along with slmpd chief robert tracy. - faith leaders luncheon: organized faith leaders luncheon in partnership with the urban league with 250 pastors and faith leaders from north city and county, and some of the top community leaders in the city and county. The event was successful in showing appreciation for faith leaders who are critical to our neighborhood engagement objectives. - invested $200,000 in the urban league save our sons program and division of public safety to increase employment opportunities for at-risk african american men and women and reduce crime in target neighborhoods.
Workforce & talent development: to address gaps in the post-secondary workforce by supporting organizations and initiatives that provide both technical and soft skills training for high-demand careers that require specialized training such as it, healthcare, manufacturing, and the trades.- stl.works targeted 17 public school districts, representing roughly 160,000 students that indirectly influenced over 4,000 students through interactions with over 360 educators, and directly reached 3,467 students and 180 counselors, educators, principals, and superintendents. - organized and participated in 46 speaking engagements in 17 targeted school districts alongside stl.works industry sector partners in healthcare, technology, public safety, advanced manufacturing, and trades.- increased industry partnerships for stl.works by 7 for a total of 94 partners throughout the region in addition to increasing industry skilled professional speakers.- stl.works had 32 company interactions with students, principals, assistant principals, and counselors and held 1 large scale career pathways event at the legacy center with 7 school districts in attendance, 251 students, and a total of 30 stl.works partners.- supported, partnered, and engaged with 9 initiatives: global center for cybersecurity, junior achievement, npower, rung for women, urban league (save our sons and sisters), amicstl, show-me careers, saint louis university, and saint louis community college.- provided $10,000 to the st. louis county police student camp and engagement activities and inclusion of north st. louis students for the west post 9774, providing support for new equipment, technology, and uniforms for cadets.- provided $2,000 and support to the first e-sports tournament in the 24:1 footprint in partnership with the bgg foundation. This event was located at the legacy center and had over 150 youth and families in attendance.- provided $10,000 and support to Missouri chamber's show-me-careers which provided direct insight into in-demand occupations to key educators, counselors, and administrators throughout the region in an immersive summer externship program. This program had 40-50 school professionals visit up to 14 employers in one week as they traveled around by charter bus, during which time employers provided tours, simulations, hands-on activities, panel discussions and presentations on their Business, the industry, and key occupation pathways.- provided support to ja trades, trailer, and vr experience. Once wrapped, ja trades plans to order 3,500 cardboard vr goggles for students to use in the ja trades vr experience. Ja's goal is to reach students in rural, urban, and suburban areas. Ja trades currently serves and engages over 150,000 students annually and has established district operations throughout Missouri and southern Illinois.- provided support to wyman teen leadership workshops and career pathway support, with 50 students in attendance.- provided support to rung for women and its clients by expanding its preferred career pathways in advanced manufacturing and construction skilled trades. Stl.works helped raise awareness of various positions in these fields, identified women interested in pursuing careers in construction and advanced manufacturing, coordinated/provided training, networking support, interviews, and job placement.- stl.works organized and participated in a meeting with county executive sam page and his cabinet, along with 10 rbc companies, to discuss current private sector workforce trends and updates from rbc members about stl county workforce efforts and opportunities for funding. Dr. Page specifically asked for rbc members to come up with 6 things to measure, in terms of quantitative data, that could be used by the county to steer funding in the right direction.talent development & retention: to attract, retain, and develop a highly skilled and diverse workforce in the st. louis region by providing valuable opportunities for networking, professional development, and community involvement- contributed to the retention of diverse talent in the region through the mentor network program by pairing 125 college students (50% of whom identify as an ethnic/racial minority) with Business and civic leaders in the region, including 15 new mentors this year.- grew the young professionals network to over 4,500 members and supported the leadership 100 members and their service with 77 members serving on 157 different Regional boards.
Giving back: to improve the quality of life in the region by bridging the corporate and Regional nonprofit communities and encouraging emerging Business leaders to get involved philanthropically in st. louis.- st. louis social venture partners (svp) invested a total of $130,000 into five nonprofits. They were able to apply the funding towards projects essential to build capacity and functionality in their organizations, including: cyberup: hire marketing services for the new power up curriculum and program. Dream builders 4 equity: cover expenses for upgraded accounting projects. Eye thrive: purchase and develop electronic medical record (emr) software. Seed st. louis: purchase board management software- social venture partners welcomed four new partners for a total of 33, working to build capacity within five nonprofit organizations that collectively serve over 20,000 youths in the st. louis region.- thanks to the connections of our svp partners, all five nonprofit investees were able to attend a two-day free agile training workshop.- the svp grant committee concluded a thorough grant application process, selecting two new organizations to support in 2024 - jackie joyner-kersee foundation and lovethelou - who serve youth in east st. louis and north st. louis.- rbc's it's our region fund received 179 grant applications, which was approximately 40% more than the previous year. After careful deliberation, the it's our region fund grant committee allocated $100,000 to 29 nonprofit organizations in the st. louis region, including four organizations serving disadvantaged communities in Illinois.- the rbc raised $15.8m for the united way of greater st. louis. These funds help the united way address the st. louis region's needs and ensure our residents meet their basic needs of food, shelter, and transportation as well their long-term needs, including job training, youth programming, education, and counseling.
K-12 education: to invest in the economic future of our region by advancing opportunities for learning and academic excellence for every child, especially disadvantaged youth- provided moral and financial support to kipp schools st. louis, specifically kipp st. louis high school ($75,000). This support will be allocated to the kipp forward team as they continue to create meaningful relationships with students and their families as they create a plan for post-graduate studies or employment opportunities.- funded the opportunity trust ($25,000) to support programs focused on best practices for public school board governance with an emphasis on student outcomes.inclusion: cultivate a welcoming and globally attractive Regional Business environment and address systemic racism through education, targeted intervention, and investments- kicked off cohort 2 of the executive leadership initiative and worked with hispanic chamber ceo to select 3 brown-owned businesses for the first time. - executive leadership initiative kickoff event: held the first in-person event for cohort 2. The event was well-attended and featured remarks from the initiative chair mike kennedy, committee chair laurna godwin, in addition to mentees in the program. New coaches and mentees were able to connect with their partners and other participants in the program.- executive leadership gifts: worked with executive leadership initiative mentee doug spencer, ceo of bold xchange to engage mentees in cohort 2 to create unique gift boxes from participating businesses for every rbc member for the november board meeting. Rbc boxes were custom-designed, and inserts were created with the names of coaches and participants in our program along with products they sell.other public partnerships and collaboration: - conducted meetings to inform rbc members about developments affecting rbc priorities in the areas of crime and public safety, career pathways, and education policy. - conducted meetings with st. louis development corporation (sldc) to support the city of st. louis' proposal to build up underinvested communities in north st. louis. Rbc was able to secure an initial $1.5 million investment to get the project off the ground.