Orv Kimbrough on impact banking, human potential, and regional prosperity.

When a massive sinkhole opened in the heart of downtown St. Louis, it seemed to happen almost without warning. Streets closed. Traffic was disrupted for days. Repairs would be neither quick nor inexpensive. But the collapse itself wasn’t the real story.

When communities lack stability and continuity, success can feel fleeting at best and unachievable at worst. Growing up in inner-city Cincinnati, Aaron Hempel saw this all too often among his friends and neighbors. Their experiences motivated him to seek out organizations making a steady impact.

Our latest State of the Community focuses on the new Family Cohort—an exciting evolution of our work designed to help more families build stronger futures through opportunity, partnership, and commitment.

The nine entrepreneurs will spend the next 11 weeks receiving expert coaching, business planning support, and access to resources designed to help their ideas grow into sustainable businesses. For many, it’s also an opportunity to build wealth, create jobs, and reinvest in the communities they call home.

For more than 100 years, Reed Rubber Products has operated in St. Louis—evolving alongside the city itself.

For Reed Rubber, supporting Beyond Housing also offered something equally important: a way to make a local impact through an organization already deeply embedded in the work.

The nine entrepreneurs will spend the next 11 weeks receiving expert coaching, business planning support, and access to resources designed to help their ideas grow into sustainable businesses. For many, it’s also an opportunity to build wealth, create jobs, and reinvest in the communities they call home.

Three leaders of nonprofit groups offered a measured critique of the political system in the St. Louis area, saying there’s a need for elected officials to work with the business community to confront the region’s challenges.

Two resident stories from Beyond Housing’s 50th Anniversary Celebration exemplify what’s possible when families have the opportunity to thrive

The nine entrepreneurs will spend the next 11 weeks receiving expert coaching, business planning support, and access to resources designed to help their ideas grow into sustainable businesses. For many, it’s also an opportunity to build wealth, create jobs, and reinvest in the communities they call home.

After more than a decade joining forces, Regions Bank and Beyond Housing recently strengthened their community collaboration around the next evolution of Beyond Housing’s holistic approach to increase economic mobility for families.

For the 100 families in the pilot stage of a new, focused Beyond Housing initiative, cleaning the floors in their rental homes will soon be easier. Local manufacturing and distribution company Tacony Corporation has made an in-kind donation of 200 Riccar vacuums valued at $149,798.

On Saturday night, March 21, nearly 600 people from across St. Louis came together at The Factory in Chesterfield to celebrate 50 years of strengthening families and transforming communities.

If we’re serious about improving the St. Louis region in any meaningful way, we first have to recognize a fundamental truth: St. Louis doesn’t have a single problem — it has a system of interconnected challenges.

Supporting St. Louis’ most under-resourced areas not only helps break the cycle of poverty in those communities, it creates a stronger St. Louis overall.