The Impact of a holistic POV
Sometimes, it’s hard to answer the question, “What do you do?” Some of the Steadfast City staff have degrees in political science, others have extensive experience assembling incentives packages, and yet others bring a solid background in urban planning to our diverse team. To some people, this combination might not make sense…at first.
It’s not immediately apparent how all the things we do at Steadfast City fit together. We assist private companies with site selection and development incentives, help non-profit organizations with capacity building and grant writing, and do a lot of things in between. Those don’t necessarily sound like they belong together, unless you’re looking at it from our develop better point of view.
Cities and neighborhoods need companies to create well-paying jobs just as much as they need non-profit organizations to provide social services. Each one is important to building vibrant, healthy cities. True impact happens through holistic change, for example:
How economic and community development overlap and work together
How the private, non-profit, and public sectors work and interact
How buildings and businesses relate to social infrastructure and people
ST. MARY’S HIGH SCHOOL
This holistic lens is evident in Steadfast City’s work with St. Mary’s High School, an all-boys secondary school in a southside neighborhood in the City of St. Louis. The school is a model of how social services, education, workforce development, physical infrastructure, and private investment come together. The school is transforming its increasingly diverse student body as well as its surrounding neighborhood, which has faced decades of disinvestment and the departure of private institutions. Steadfast City has worked with the school to secure the resources that make its mission possible, including contributions from private donors, grants and tax credits.
What we do at Steadfast City requires a holistic view of where various systems overlap and how various sectors interact. This concept is at the core of Steadfast City's mission and drives everything we do. This is how we develop better.
