Rise had the pleasure of hosting an educational tour for a housing policy class from the University of Iowa on March 31, 2016. The class consisted of ten graduate and undergraduate students. The majority of these students are pursuing master’s degrees in urban planning and several of the students are involved in housing advocacy outside of the classroom. Each year, this housing policy course takes a field trip to a Midwest metro area to see in person how housing assistance programs and policies impact real communities. This year they visited St. Louis and in their words “were incredibly inspired by what we saw online about Rise”. They asked  if they could learn about the history of the organization, some of the key ways we assist communities and developers in St. Louis and visit a few properties or programs.UOI Student Experience 04082016 003

Stephen Acree (President of Rise) and Rick Bonasch (Director of Technical Assitance at Rise) led a presentation and a guided tour of two of Rise’s developments and two Community Development Corporations (CDCs). The presentation featured information on the various ways Rise provides capacity building to community-based organizations, how that function supports community revitalization, and how we use data to assist with CDC capacity building, community development consulting, democratization of data, and real estate development.

After the presentation at Rise’s office on Washington Ave., the group visited Northside Community Housing, The Greater Ville Neighborhood, Park Central Development Corporation, and the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood.

The tour ended at Layla in The Grove where everyone enjoyed “burgers from outer space”!

To view the presentation click here.