Excellence in Community and Faith-based Social Entrepreneurship: St. Patrick Center Programs Build Permanent, Positive Change

by Dan Buck, Chief Executive Officer, St. Patrick Center

St. Patrick Center, located in downtown St. Louis, helps more than 8,000 individuals annually with mental health, employment and housing programs.

Working with homeless and impoverished populations to provide opportunities for success, independence and financial stability requires innovation. As Missouri’s largest provider of homeless services, St. Patrick Center sees innovation as part of its ongoing formula for success.

Since 1983, St. Patrick Center has served nearly 100,000 impoverished and homeless people in the St. Louis metropolitan area. In 1991, President George H.W Bush designated St. Patrick Center as Point 545 in the 1,000 Points of Light.

Through programs including innovative outreach, mental health and substance abuse treatment, health care, education, employment and housing, people of any faith and background can find a new start. The agency’s Five-Year Strategic Plan (for fiscal years 2007- 2011) calls for a more proactive approach in including its clients in the St. Louis economy.

St. Louis’s diversified economy

During most of the 20th century, St. Louis was a major part of the national manufacturing economy. Today, local manufacturers who produce goods ranging from trucks and aircraft to beer and pharmaceuticals are still a vital part of the region’s economy. But that economy is more diverse than in the past, as St. Louis develops an economic base that is tied to sophisticated service and research industries.

The city’s employment is broad-based and diverse. The share of the region’s workers employed in manufacturing, 11 percent, is almost exactly the same as the U.S. average. That remains true for most of the major industrial classifications, such as transport, utilities, finance and construction. No more than 20 percent of the region’s employment is concentrated in any one sector of the economy.

This diversity keeps the region’s economy relatively stable and helps St. Louis weather the vagaries of business cycles and long-term structural changes in the U.S. economy. The most recent national recession and recovery are a valid example: Between March 2001 and March 2004, employment in St. Louis declined by 1.2 percent – a slightly larger decline than the United States experienced as a whole, but a smaller decline than experienced by Kansas City (-2.6 percent), Chicago (-4.8 percent), Boston (-7.4 percent), or San Francisco (-9.1 percent).

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 37,500 jobs were created in Missouri from February 2005 to February 2006. Ranking high on lists of the most competitive locations to do business, St. Louis stands poised to advance on this economic good news. Low cost of living, wages that are higher than the national average, impressive educational resources and a diverse economy are all positive factors contributing to economic growth in St. Louis.

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