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The Key to Moving St. Louis Forward Is Not Repeating What We’ve Done Before
6.16.2022
This article originally appeared in the St. Louis Business Journal.
By Chris Krehmeyer, President and CEO, Beyond Housing
On Tuesday, June 7, the St. Louis Business Journal held its first quarterly AdvanceSTL event examining the top issues preventing the region from achieving greater success. This first event focused on the challenges of attracting and retaining talent in St. Louis.
During our own event with the St. Louis Business Journal in April and also in a recent article, I pointed out that nearly all of the biggest challenges identified by subscribers in the St. Louis Business Journal’s AdvanceSTL survey are a byproduct of our complex social issues and our inability to effectively address them.
Beyond Housing is a sponsor of the AdvanceSTL series and taking an active role in these discussions because we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t in creating real change for our region. We also believe business plays a hugely influential role in St. Louis and is a vital part of creating meaningful change.
We can’t expect different results by repeating the past
I’m encouraged by the increased discussion of these issues and our will to finally move our region forward. I believe we are at an inflection point, but in order to create the change we desire, we need to look into the collective mirror and recognize many of our previous efforts — and I would include efforts from our own organization — have not produced the level of impact we have desired.
The following is a partial list of learnings I believe are important to recognize if we are truly going to move our region forward, once and for all.
It's time for a new approach
St. Louis has the expertise and resources to overcome our challenges. But we need a new approach. Beyond Housing’s Once and for All effort utilizes an innovative model for creating real and lasting change that is based on decades of learning from national thought leaders and has already produced significant results.
This effort is also introducing a bold new way for individuals and businesses to come together and invest in our region’s future using the initial public offering (IPO) framework. The IPO combines a results-oriented, investment mindset with the latest thinking on how to effectively address complex social issues.
Learn more about the IPO for investing in the future of St. Louis.
I’ve been working in community development in the St. Louis area for 25 years, and I’ve been the CEO of Beyond Housing since 1993. While I’m proud of our accomplishments, I don’t claim to be an expert. At Beyond Housing, the experts we listen to are the voices of the community members we serve. I’ll be raising issues here that I believe matter to our community. I hope you’ll join the conversation. We do reserve the right not to post comments containing offensive language. To paraphrase Dr. King, we can disagree without being disagreeable.