6946 Leedale, St Louis, MO 63121, us
"Unique integrated concept"- Washington university CIU Economic Base Model
Integrating youth entrepreneurship within community development
CIU Youth Programs & Community Initiatives
*Economic Base/Dollar Circulation Real Estate Model (Community Initiative)
Reported by the NAACP, "Currently a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, Jewish communities 20 days, White communities 17 days and Black communities 6 hours! Black American buying power is at 1.1 Trillion; yet 2 cents of every dollar blacks spend in this country goes to black owned businesses."
The model addresses this issue and puts the level of circulation back into comparable rates as other business counterparts within the community.
*Economic Base/Dollar Circulation Pitch @ Washington University
The Youth Committee travel to Washington University's Olin Business School to receive the completed feasibility study for CIU's Economic Base Plan. "We are doing this to create opportunities for the youth!"- NinKamBazi.
*CIU's Ferguson Poetry Club-Teen
Ferguson: Young Voices Speak, a collection of poems, available @amazon.com. Youth use their voices to bring about change to the region. Book archived at the Missouri Historical Society Library & Research Center- 225 S. Skinker Blvd. 63105
*The Walk (for an economic base)
The Ferguson Poetry Club lead walks in Ferguson to bring awareness for the need of an economic base to build connections and empower the community. ***See update on the community below under "UPDATE" Heading.
*Youth Panel/ Race, Space & Economics
Ferguson & North County Youth speak at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center in Creve Coeur Mo, December 2015.
They express the barriers they face and their need to obtain creative space for youth enrichment and entrepreneurship.
*HateBrakers
We are excited to announce that we have formalized our relationship with HateBrakers. HateBrakers, now a project of Communities In Unity, has the mission to identify, educate, and award those acts and behaviors that interrupt the cycle of hate-breeds-hate. We spotlight individuals who have experienced violence either as targets, witnesses, or perpetrators and then found the moral courage to become leaders and healers rather than haters.
Susan Balk- Founding Director of HateBrakers- A project of Communities In Unity
314-882-6182 Susan@HateBrakers.org
BLUEPRINT
Communities In Unity's Economic Base/ Dollar Circulation Model
Figure 1: Social Real Estate: Community Owned Land -
Nonprofit Tenants: Consist of identified community needs from the Ferguson Commission Report: financial empowerment, healthcare, housing, family services, youth employment, skills training, legal services.
Retail Tenants: Community Input
Profits: Reinvested in on site Youth Enrichment/Arts
UPDATE!!!
After the unrest in Ferguson Missouri in 2014, a sustainable mechanism was created by the non profit Communities In Unity. (The Economic Base Model) in an effort to bring about community ownership and empowerment to the people. Pillars of the economic base model will be implemented and located in the Ferguson/Dellwood area at the former Springwood Plaza located at 10160 West Florissant, via a community hub coming in 2021. (R&R Market Place)
Communities In Unity and the Ferguson Poetry Club youth who marched relentlessly for this type of power would like to congratulate the community
for continuing to take steps towards tangible change.
(see the poems) "Why We Walk" and "My Exhilarated Alteration"
Ferguson Young Voices Speak @amazon.com
A special thanks to all of our seed supporters who supported our efforts towards the implementation of 21st century economic models that
foster the mechanism for change.
Help Our Cause
Your support and contributions will enable our efforts to continue to build models that create space and opportunity for youth entrepreneurship and community empowerment
