4th Annual Rise Up Festival – Celebrating Revitalization in St. Louis!

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Media Inquiries:

Larry Perlmutter, Rise Communications and Development Manager

314-333-7008

[email protected]

4th Annual Rise Up Festival – Celebrating Revitalization in St. Louis!

ST. LOUIS, Washington Avenue Historic District – June 20, 2016- Rise is proud to announce our fourth annual Rise Up Festival taking place on August 20th, 2016 in the city of St. Louis on Washington Avenue, from 15th Street to 17th Street. The festivities will start up at 2 PM and continue on into the evening until 11 PM, remaining free for all to attend!

Rise’s mission is to partner with communities to build stronger, more equitable St. Louis neighborhoods. The Rise Up Festival is a one-day street event that brings together art, music, local business, and other key elements that play a part in community building in order to celebrate revitalization in St. Louis.

A wide variety of musical performances will take place at the festival, including The Original Wailers (Reggae), Platinum Rock Legends (Rock), Roland Johnson and Soul Endeavor (Blues), and Dr. Zhivegas (Dance Music). With the broad range of genres, there will be something for everyone at the festival!

Emerging artists will attend, displaying their work and participating in a competition managed by Cultural Festivals (founders and managers of the St. Louis Art Fair). Local artisan food and craft vendor booths will be present at the festival as well.

Local restaurateurs will be providing a generous sampling of food and Urban Chestnut Brewing Company will provide the microbrew. Other attractions at the festival include a Kids Carnival and Circus Area including face painting, games, and juggling.  Fun for all ages is offered at the Rise Up Festival!

We are excited to announce the National Blues Museum (NBM) as our Blues partner for 2016. NBM will sponsor Roland Johnson and Soul Endeavor and will have a strong presence at the festival promoting the rich heritage of Blues.

“We’re so excited to have the opportunity to partner with an organization that is just as passionate about music, art and culture in St. Louis as we are,” said Dion Brown, Executive Director of the National Blues Museum. “The National Blues Museum just opened in April and to be able to help promote the blues at the Rise Up Festival is just an example of the programming we hope to accomplish.”

About Rise (www.risestl.org) Rise is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities to build stronger, more equitable St. Louis area neighborhoods.  Rise develops both affordable and market-rate housing, particularly in neighborhoods with the potential to enhance economic diversity.  Rise has developed or assisted in $700 million in neighborhood redevelopment in the St. Louis area. Rise flourishes at the intersections of public, private and non-profit sectors, enhancing the quality of life in St. Louis.

For more information about the Rise Up Festival, please visit: riseupfestival.org

Rise Up Festival

The CRA Ladder of Capacity Building Initiative

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The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted by Congress in 1977 for the purpose of ensuring that financial institutions are accommodating the needs of their entire community including low to moderate income neighborhoods. Financial institutions and community-based organizations in the St. Louis region recently embarked on a capacity building initiative that will result in concrete community projects fulfilling those CRA goals.

The CRA Ladder of Capacity Building is the first initiative in the launching of Invest STL, the new regional initiative designed to bring a stronger, more collaborative system of community development and investment in St. Louis. The Ladder of Capacity Building, developed by the Community Builders Network (CBN), Rise, and Midland States Bank, is designed to create new community development opportunities for financial institutions and community-based organizations. The capacity building initiative plans to pair together financial institutions and community-based organizations to design projects that serve low- and moderate-income communities. By pairing these two groups of actors together, the CRA Ladder of Capacity Building will build relationships between investments and innovative projects in communities.

Four phases of the CRA Ladder of Capacity Building program have been defined, with the first phase already having occurred on May 5, 2016. The first phase of the program was a workshop that explained the basics of what the CRA is, how financial institutions can remain faithful to the CRA with the help of community-based organizations, and what financial institutions are looking for in projects and partnerships. Since the first workshop, a webinar was held on May 24, 2016, to help participants better understand the capacity building program and prepare themselves for the next phases of the program.

The second phase of the program will consist of a “speed networking event” on June 23, 2016. This will result in pairings between financial institutions and community-based organizations. Proposal development (with assistance from Rise, CBN staff, and bank partners) is the third phase of the program. The purpose of this phase is to construct fully developed project proposals by the community organizations and financial institution teams. The final phase of the program will consist of a showcase of the proposals by the community organizations to a judging committee. Winning proposals will receive funding awards of up to $10,000 (the funding awards were made possible by Midland States Bank).

Throughout this capacity building process,  young professionals interested in community development are supporting the capacity building ladder and participants as they develop CRA eligible proposals. Rise is matching interns in their Rising Stars Program with participating community-based organizations to add to their capacity and to provide graduate student interns hands-on community development experience.

Rise and the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis are working to facilitate the remaining phases of the CRA Ladder of Capacity Building, resulting in community organizations and financial institutions implementing community improvement projects in the St. Louis region.