In the heart of St. Louis, a transformative pilot initiative launched in 2021 to help residents build wealth so that they can afford to stay and grow in their chosen neighborhoods. Since its inception, Rooted, an initiative of the nonprofit Invest STL, has provided 50 Black residents in the West End and Visitation Park neighborhoods with the support of pro bono financial planners and a $22,000 grant to address immediate needs and build long-term wealth to purchase property in the neighborhoods, complete home repairs or property upgrades in the neighborhoods, start or build a small business in the neighborhoods, or add to an investment account. By investing in long-time residents, many whom have been in the neighborhood 21+ years, Rooted helps program participants, or resident investors, build wealth and remain in their community as their neighborhood faces significant gentrification.

Using Foundation for Financial Planning’s platform, ProBonoPlannerMatch.Org, Rooted recruited St. Louis- based CFP® professionals to provide financial guidance to the resident investors. One of these CFP® professionals was Kyle Luetters, CFP®. Kyle worked with two pro bono clients, meeting with them once a quarter for several years – one of them was using the grant to start a small business while the other was using it to renovate their home. In addition to advising them on how to deploy the $20,000 for long-term investing, he guided them through major tenets of financial planning like benefits, cash flow, insurance, debt management, and more.

“It has been beautiful to watch how the Rooted investors went from nervous and apprehensive to really enjoying the relationship they have with their financial planners,” said Michelle Witthaus, Invest STL Policy Design and Activation Lead of the Rooted Initiative. Kyle also enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the pro bono relationship. Working with his clients helped him not only to sharpen his financial planning skills, but also to become more aware of what others living in his city were going through.  Exposed to “a completely different view of many areas of life,” he found the experience “eye-opening” and “humbling.”

Creating wealth is a long game, and Rooted is just at the beginning of its life cycle. To date, Rooted resident investors have:

• Launched 6 new businesses
• Scaled up 2 existing businesses
• Capitalized 20 investment accounts to seed long-term wealth building
• Made major home repairs on 25 homes
• Created and filed beneficiary deeds for 16 homes to preserve the asset for the next generation

Leaders of Rooted hope that the Program becomes a blueprint for other communities across the nation. They created the Rooted Powerbook, a how-to guide to teach others about the program’s anti-displacement journey and help them replicate the initiative in their own communities.