Community Development

• Events
  • Upcoming
  • Past
• Innovation
  • Exploring Innovation
  • 10,000-Hour Challenge
• Multimedia
  • Video
  • Audio
• Foreclosure Resource Center
  • Introduction
  • Community Resources
  • Consumer Resources
  • Mitigation Toolkit
• Publications
  • LMI Survey
  • Bridges Newsletter
  • Community Development
    Research Reports
  • Community Development
    Booklets, Guides and Brochures
  • Consumer Information
• About Us
  • Overview
  • Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
  • Community Development
    Advisory Council
  • Staff Directory
• Links

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

03/07 | Cleveland, Miss.
Mississippi Asset-Building Symposium

Spotlight on Past Events

St. Louis Neighborhood Market DrillDown

The St. Louis Fed was the site of the release of the St. Louis Neighborhood Market DrillDown, an assets-based approach to market research that combines numerous data sets to build an up-to-date set of community economic indicators tailored to the strengths of urban neighborhoods. Participants attended presentations, heard from a response panel, and joined in-depth discussions about the ways in which using this new data differently can assist in building a more sustainable and equitable St. Louis.

View conference materials: summary of conference proceedings, videos, speaker presentations, agenda, bios, additional resources

2011 Exploring Innovation:
A Conference on Community Development Finance

Exploring Innovation: A Conference on Community Development Finance was held May 9-11, 2011, at the Chase Park Plaza hotel in St. Louis, Mo. The conference was attended by lenders, investors, nonprofit community development practitioners and others who learned how to use innovative business models that address the financing of all aspects of thriving communities—from housing and infrastructure to community engagement and leadership development. Learning tracks included retail products and services, the green economy, investments and equity, and financing comprehensive development. Employing innovative presentation and collaboration techniques, the conference:

• illustrated how innovation can result in new finance models;
• highlighted industry best practices, state-of-the-art policies and innovative thinking; and
• served as a catalyst for future discussions around topics of significant importance to community development.

View conference happenings: presentation summaries and videos.

Tapping New Sources and Exploring New Models for
Community Development Finance

Standard financing models cannot address the growing needs of the field of community development, according to experts Dione Alexander, Ian Galloway and Trinita Logue. Unconventional methods and new, collaborative financial models need to be explored, including platform/system financing, philanthropic equity, technology and microfinance/peer-to-peer lending. Innovative financial institutions and organizations are learning how to work together to connect lenders to investors, sometimes by creating new platforms and partnership structures. This was the message at the Nov. 10 public policy dialogue, part of the St. Louis Fed’s 2010 Exploring Innovation series. The dialogue was followed at all Bank locations by a discussion regarding the implications of these issues on society, including how organizations must address these concerns to attract investment, add value, and support economic and social development.

Footage from the videoconference portion: watch video | Post-event summaries: St. Louis, Little Rock, Louisville, Memphis