There's a segment of our community that is doing everything right — working hard, running businesses, building families — and still can't get ahead. Not because they aren't trying. Because the systems that exist to help people were never built for them.
Our social safety net was designed to catch people in crisis. Our financial system was designed to serve people who are already stable. What we've built between those two things is a very wide gap — and a lot of people are falling into it every day.
"They make too much to be served by traditional nonprofits — but not enough to reach living wage and economic thriving."
These are working families, small business owners, and community members who are earning income, contributing to the local economy, and trying to build something — but keep running into walls that weren't designed with them in mind.
The result isn't laziness or poor decisions. It's a structural gap that no one has taken real ownership of closing. Rising Together is an effort to change that in the St. Louis region.
Who we're talking about
Household income that disqualifies them from most assistance programs — but not enough to absorb an unexpected expense, build savings, or access affordable credit when they need it.
A business doing real revenue — a restaurant, a shop, a service provider — that is too established for startup programs and too small for traditional commercial banking products.
Someone who is creating value in their neighborhood — employing people, serving their community — without access to the networks, capital, or coaching that would let them grow sustainably.
The goal isn't charity. It's access — to the same tools, relationships, and pathways that people with more resources take for granted. A St. Louis where the missing middle has a place at the table, and where the gap between surviving and thriving is something we close together.
This is early. The mission is clear; the programs are being built. What we know is the problem, who it affects, and what it will take to move the needle.
Financial products and pathways designed for people who don't fit the traditional mold — without predatory terms or impossible bars to clear.
The knowledge, networks, and guidance that help people make the most of opportunity — the kind of support that tends to come easily if you know the right people, and not at all if you don't.
Working with institutions — banks, nonprofits, employers, government — to redesign the systems that keep creating this gap in the first place.
Rising Together Foundation was established in partnership with Midwest BankCentre — a St. Louis institution with deep roots in community banking and a long-standing commitment to the economic health of the region.
The partnership matters because closing this gap requires more than good intentions. It requires financial infrastructure, institutional credibility, and the willingness to build products and programs that don't yet exist.
That's what this collaboration is designed to do.
The mission-driven vehicle for outreach, programming, coaching, and community connection for the missing middle in the St. Louis region.
A community bank with deep St. Louis roots, providing financial infrastructure, lending capacity, and institutional partnership to support the work.
Our geography is intentional. The missing middle looks different in every city. This work starts here, with the people and businesses that make this community run.
Every venture I've built started with noticing someone falling through a crack that shouldn't exist. Hello Telle started with caregivers. Compass Kids Crew started with parents. This one started with the people I kept seeing in my community — working hard, doing everything right, and still not getting ahead.
"The gap between surviving and thriving is often smaller than it looks. What's missing is usually access — to capital, to knowledge, to the right conversation at the right time."
My role here is to help build the mission, develop the programs, and make sure the people we're trying to serve actually have a voice in how this work takes shape. That's the only way it works.
Connect with this work
Whether you're a potential partner, someone who lives this reality, or someone who just wants to understand the problem better — we'd love to hear from you.
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