History

In 1985, a small group of neighborhood residents, led by Ceola Davis of the Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, founded what is now known as the Emerson Park Development Corporation (EPDC). Initially, the group met to address residents’ concerns about missing manhole covers and broken streetlights in the Emerson Park neighborhood of East St. Louis, Illinois. However in 1989, EPDC became incorporated and expanded its mission to address issues of unemployment, environmental degradation and crime in the 55-block area.

While EPDC was starting to grow, Illinois State Representative Wyvetter H. Younge of District 114, which includes East St. Louis, became interested in what the University of Illinois could do to improve the degrading conditions of the city brought on by middle-class flight and the loss of industry. She learned that the University was conducting research activities in and around East St. Louis. However, Representative Younge challenged University officials to do more. She wanted them to commit to revitalizing East St. Louis in order for her to support its funding request. As a result, the University developed the East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP), which mobilized its minority and non-traditional students in the School of Architecture, the Department of Urban Planning and the Department of Landscape Architecture, to work directly with East St. Louis residents. ESLARP’s focus was to utilize the disciplines of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture to empower residents so they could meet their own needs. It created a service learning and technical assistance program around community development.

In 1990, ESLARP and EPDC worked together with the Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House to create the area’s first neighborhood revitalization plan. The Neighborhood Improvement Plan for Emerson Park, completed and adopted by residents in 1991, addressed economic growth, public safety and other community concerns. It won the American Institute of Certified Planners’ Outstanding Student Plan.

EPDC was granted its non-profit status in 1995. That same year, the organization hired its first full-time employees, an executive director and an office manager. It was that year as well, that EPDC began to acquire the surplus land in the neighborhood.

In 1996, EPDC began to lobby for a “walk and ride” MetroLink station in Emerson Park instead of a “park and ride” station in another part of the City. Through its effective use of partnerships, EPDC was able to get Metro, formerly known as the Bi-State Development Agency, to change its light rail route through East St. Louis and to place the largest park and ride station on the line in Emerson Park. This change provided the catalyst for spurring housing redevelopment in East St. Louis and changing the city’s perception.

Once it was decided that the MetroLink would place a large walk and ride station in the neighborhood, in 1998, McCormack Baron & Associates was selected as the co-developer for a $26 million mixed income tax credit development to be placed within the neighborhood along the rail line.

In 1999 following the success of the first plan, and with the realignment of the MetroLink in progress, EPDC worked with University of Illinois students to write the second neighborhood revitalization plan. Four community groups and the East St. Louis City Council approved the plan as part of the city’s proposed master plan.

The 174 units of Parsosn Place began to fill as the realization of the station opening became realized in May of 2001. By that time EPDC had acquired more than 186 parcels of land, constructed 276 affordable housing rental units, provided rehab dollars and/or rehabbed more than 36 home owner occupied units, constructed and / or rehabbed 15 single-family for sale homes and engaged in the first phase of 150 single family for sale homes in Emerson Park. This development, known as “River City Place”, is the largest private development to be built in Emerson Park in more than 30 years. On December 2, 2005, EPDC held a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome Sheron Stepney, Kim Rogers and Dawn Beckley , the first three families to move into the new homes. Since 1995, more than $100 million has been poured into the Emerson Park neighborhood.

EPDC’s other achievements include adopting Cannady Park and creating the Ceola Davis Park. We also started Tomorrows Builders Charter School, which runs the YouthBuild and AmeriCorps programs, to help young people obtain their high school diplomas, GEDs, trades training and earn money for college. Most recently, ESLARP helped EPDC write the 2005 Emerson Park Neighborhood Revitalization Plan.

What began as a modest effort to halt the neighborhood’s social and physical decline has developed into one of the largest and most proactive community-based organizations in the Metro East area. With a board of 13 and a staff of 25, EPDC now has three fully functional divisions – education and job training, housing and economic development, and community advocacy.

In the mid-1980s a small group of neighborhood women, led by Ceola Davis, came together to discuss creating an organization to rehabilitate their once-thriving neighborhood. Eager to break through the cynicism that many residents harbored regarding what they called “talking organizations,” the group decided to pick a highly visible physical improvement project to demonstrate the power of collective action: the construction of a playground where three abandoned buildings stood. The site was also located across from the Lessie Bates Davis Child Care Center, where many of their grandchildren were enrolled. Ceola Davis has lived in East St. Louis, Illinois her entire life, and 39 years have been spent in the city’s Emerson Park neighborhood. In 1989, following the area’s extreme economic decline, Ceola founded the Emerson Park Development Corporation. The organization was created in hopes of motivating residents to act and to build a better community. “People of power had forgotten that there was another class of people that could think and have dreams and aspirations,” says Ceola. “I started getting to know all the people in Emerson Park. They would tell me what they liked, and did not like, and always wanted somebody to do something about it.” At that time, Ceola was a social worker at the Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House, a multi-purpose community organization. Everyday on her way to work she would see a group of men that hung out on a corner drinking wine. “They are the reason I started EPDC,” says Ceola. After months of trying to improve the community without success, Ceola decided to run for precinct committeewoman. People supported her, and soon she was inside the political structure. Ceola began learning to write grants and to see how the lower class was perceived by the city. “I let the community form the first committee because it was important to have people from all walks of life involved,” says Ceola. “No program existed before EPDC. I knew it would not survive unless all segments of the population were represented.” At the same time, State Representative Wyvetter Younge was taking an interest in East St. Louis’ declining condition. She began to help EPDC form ideas and plan proposals for the city. Soon, meetings were started for local homeowners. They in turn took the responsibility of going to City Hall when necessary. City politicians learned that if they did not support the people of Emerson Park, they would feel the wrath on Election Day. “Our first community project was fixing a senior’s steps,” says Ceola. “Then we cleaned up an alley and paid for the trash to be removed.” With the help of Rep. Younge and students from the University of Illinois, EPDC cleaned the whole length of Ninth Street that runs through Emerson Park. “The group of men that used to stand on the corner did all the physical work that needed to be done,” says Ceola. “Those men raised the first money for our organization. They wanted to have refreshments for the homeowners’ meetings.” Ceola is most proud of EPDC’s creation of Tomorrows Builders Charter School and the building of new homes under leadership by executive director Vickie Forby. “Many children who have gone through the East St. Louis public school system do not find help or inspiration to achieve their goals,” says Ceola. “Now they are in the YouthBuild program and it helps them to find themselves.” Now 63, Ceola is a mother of one, grandmother of four, and even has one great-grandson. In the last 16 years, she has helped Emerson Park to rise from the dust of what it had become. Ceola looks at men on the corner and sees potential. She believes in the power of community and says, “All people have ideas and dreams, but very few people listen.”