Our History

Tuesday after Tuesday the meetings revealed one thing: similar problems. Weeds were a problem on the northside and the southside. The southside housing problem was mirrored on the northside. The northside health concerns were duplicated on the southside. The loitering and unemployment problems knew no boundaries. Consequently, one question arose. Are we going to cooperate and confront growing concerns, or are we going to fight each other over the limited resources available to solve our problems? In the Civil War President Lincoln warned, “A house divided against itself cannot stand:’ We must stand together. The challenge to unify was before us.

A task force was formed to ponder this idea and hammer out a new corporation. After developing trust and camaraderie, an organization was formed as an umbrella group. The organization chose the name SLACO – the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations. The name denoted openness to groups in the entire area in the hopes of building a city-wide coalition. Prayer guided all the deliberations as the constitution, bylaws and articles of incorporation were penned. SLACO was born.

For many months SLACO appeared to be a paper corporation. Just as a blueprint is not a building, so corporate papers are not a corporation. Funding was proving difficult and without it there could be no capable staff ·to do the task that SLACO envisioned. We had wonderful experiences with VISTA workers and other volunteers. However, without capable direction, generous volunteers are helpless.

We found some initial success with proposals to religious communities and received some support from several nonCatholic Christian denominations. A year later when the Campaign for Human Development funded us, we were finally on the road. During that first year the Archdiocesan Human Rights Office was often our angel.

SLACO’s first priority was to hire a director with experience, competence and integrity. That person had to be dedicated to a Christian notion of community organizing. When we put out feelers for a director, one name frequently surfaced: Sister Mary Dolan. Other names were mentioned in passing, but none with the glowing praise that invariably surrounded Mary’s name. She had had years of experience with the Oakland Organizing Project in California and was described as “smart, fiery, dedicated, empathetic and willing to invest her life for the long haul.” We called her, invited her to visit St. Louis, prayed with her and hired her almost immediately. Everything that people said about her was an understatement.

The organizational structure of SLACO was now off the drawing boards and beginning to take flesh in real people. The $50,000 Campaign for Human Development grant and the $10,000 grant from the Archdiocesan Human Rights Office formed a solid foundation from which to approach St. Louis businesses. Pointing out the reasonableness of our approach, the documented past successes, and the unrelenting determination of our people were the best method of selling SLACO to others.