Photo credit: Peaks View LLC
A neighborhood in North St. Louis, Missouri, had seen a decline over the second half of the 20th century, as major industries left the neighborhood and abandoned properties increased. In 2002, a local elementary school closed, later sitting empty for almost 20 years, until a local group, with support from Mercy Partnership Fund investee IFF, reimagined the building as a community resource center providing vital services to residents.
Since 2014, Tabernacle Community Development Corporation has worked to eliminate poverty and social exclusion in several St. Louis neighborhoods. Tabernacle used an IFF loan to purchase and renovate the school which opened in December 2021 as The Hub, a community-driven facility that brings together several organizations to offer vital services and programs including health care, legal counseling, speech therapy, and music instruction. The Hub’s healthcare clinic is operated by Mercy, a health system whose roots date to the Sisters of Mercy’s founding of St. John’s Hospital in St. Louis in 1871. The clinic provides family medicine and obstetrics/gynecology services, as well as a social worker and community health worker. The Hub also offers community meeting space and plans to create a youth-focused technology center and a satellite bank branch. Read more about the Hub and IFF’s role in its opening.
Mercy Partnership Fund investments in 64 mission-focused organizations support affordable housing, access to financial services, healthy communities, environmental sustainability and more. Learn more about the wide-ranging impact of these investments.