Innovation Hub

INNOVATION HUB Building a Better Future

By Drew Gieseke | Photos supplied

ASt. Louis-based nonprofit organization is shifting the way young people think – and investing in the metro area along the way.

Founded in 2016, Dream Builders 4 Equity seeks to provide workforce development training for people ages 14 to 24 and recently started planning to transform a newly acquired property into its headquarters. The nonprofit’s program helps kids and young adults invest in themselves and their communities while, quite literally, reshaping their surroundings through construction, home repair and landscaping projects in Hyde Park, a predominantly Black neighborhood in St. Louis.

“Part of [the program] is just shifting the paradigm in the students’ minds, so the next generation of people growing up and moving into the neighborhood are exposed to a totally different mindset,” says Colin Currie Nelson, construction coordinator for Dream Builders 4 Equity. “They have a mental stake in the community.”

Dream Builders 4 Equity teaches participants about construction, real estate investing and personal finance. Their work directly impacts the Hyde Park community: In just six years, nearly 75 participants have completed training and made progress toward the organization’s goal of renovating 50 properties in the community by 2025.

When a property sells, trainees who worked on the project receive a portion of the proceeds through a scholarship. The nonprofit also partners with local minority contractors to complete free home repairs and landscaping for local senior citizens.

“We’re bridging a gap on a relational level, so the seniors and students get to know one another in the community,” Nelson says.

In late June, the nonprofit announced a major donation from Midwest BankCentre, which has locations in the city of St. Louis, plus Jefferson and St. Charles counties in Missouri and St. Clair County in Illinois. According to a press release, the financial institution donated one of its buildings and associated land parcels – valued at $570,000, totaling 1.25 acres and located at 3529 N. Broadway at Mallinckrodt Avenue – to serve as Dream Builders 4 Equity’s new headquarters. Although renovations haven’t yet started, the nonprofit’s leaders look forward to getting into the building sometime next year.

Although the bank will still maintain a presence in the building, the finished product will completely reshape how the nonprofit furthers its mission.

“The goal is for that to be our new hub in the community but also to have a space for other nonprofits and organizations to have a space in the community,” says Jessica Gaines, Dream Builders 4 Equity project manager.

This vision includes constructing a new 15-bed dormitory for program participants to lease – providing the stability that is often needed – and offering financial literacy services, such as homeownership education, to anyone in the community.

“By the time they graduate, the neighborhood will literally be visibly changing,” says Nelson of the current participants. “To see some of the people in the neighborhood actually gaining from that change, it’s mind-opening. I think that kind of plants the seed of ownership in the students that lets them know you can rise in your neighborhood.” ln Dream Builders 4 Equity, 4220 Duncan Ave., Suite 201, St. Louis, dreambuilders4equity.org