Community Building

Beyond Housing's Community Building program is place-based. We work in specific geographic locations to help eliminate the consequences of poverty and transform entire communities by:

Stabilizing and improving the housing stock
Helping families identify and obtain educational, employment and support services
Building community leadership capacity
Promoting economic development

Our Community Building work originally focused on the St. Louis County municipality of Pagedale. In 2002, city officials there invited us to work with them. Today, we positively touch more than 1,000 lives there each year.

We have built 90 new homes in Pagedale, including 20 in the Mary Louise Estates, named after Pagedale Mayor and resident, Mary Louise Carter.
We provide financial and volunteer resources to help hundreds of other homeowners repair and rehab their properties.
Our Pagedale Family Support Center is a hub for neighborhood activity, training programs, youth programs, and other support services.
An Individual Development Account program is helping residents build wealth for the future.
Our economic development efforts produced a new grocery store which opened in 2010, generating jobs and attracting more investment to benefit the entire community.

Among the programs and services available to Pagedale residents are:

Case Management to link residents with resources, referrals, job assistance, educational assistance and other needed support.
Back-to-Schoolapalooza: An annual event to gather and distribute school supplies.
After-School Program that includes a computer lab, homework assistance and recreational activities.
Red Bird Rookies Youth Baseball League and Rams 28 youth football club.
Monthly food pantry.
Summer Camp/Freedom School for Pagedale children, including athletic, recreational, and literacy activities.

We have expanded our outreach to all of the municipalities within the boundaries of the Normandy School District and its 40,000 residents...starting with the completion of 37 new homes for rent in Hillsdale in 2010. This program will be a national model for revitalizing "inner ring" suburbs and mitigating the many challenges faced by urban areas across the country.