Congratulations to Laura Ginn, Green City Coalition Program Manager at the St. Louis Development Corporation, recipient of our 2020 Award for Collaboration & Coalition Building
The Award for Collaboration & Coalition Building recognizes a person, organization, institution, or initiative that:
Demonstrates incredible commitment to working through partnerships, even when it’s more challenging than “going it alone.”
Forges new connections that bridge gaps between people, organizations, and places that don’t normally interact with each other in the St. Louis region.
Shows up for others and participates directly in their work; does not only ask or expect that partners and collaborators come to them.
Approaches difficulty and conflict with understanding, compassion, and an open mind.
Humans of St. Louis storytellers Maleeha Samer and Colleen O’Connell Smyth met with Laura to learn more about her and her work. Here’s some of what she had to say.
Laura Ginn
“An alderwoman sent me a text message with 😧 😡 when she found out a property was demolished, and my heart dropped. I was feeling really guilty that I might have destroyed our rapport and relationship. I said, ‘Oh my God, I screwed up. This is terrible.’ So, I worked up the nerve to call her, and we talked it out while I explained what had happened. She hadn’t been to the property recently and didn’t know the back of the building had collapsed or that the neighbor supported the demolition. She was like, ‘Oh, okay. Well, that’s fine. Thank you.’ A couple of days later, I realized she had felt comfortable sending me those angry emojis instead of deciding that she’s never going to work with me again. I’m trying to take the criticisms and comments as more information to feed the decision-making process instead of taking it personally. Because it’s not as much about me as it is about this city – the broad context, the history, the now. When people give feedback, no matter if it’s negative or positive, that’s a win because we’re having a conversation that will guide how the work will continue.”
- Laura Ginn, Green City Coalition Program Manager, St. Louis Development Corporation
Laura Ginn
“There’s this 80-year-old woman who lives next door to a vacant building, and there are a lot of trees growing in the backyard. One of the trees coming over the fence is growing into the back of her house to the point where it’s pushing pieces of bricks off. There’s another tree whose limbs are falling and damaging the roof of her garage and car. Her social worker filled out a contact form on the STL vacancy website and asked if anyone could help. I was able to go out to this woman’s house and saw that the property owner hadn’t responded to the issue. We put it out to bid and paid Jubilee Services to remove the trees. It felt like such a small thing. But now a thing that stressed out the homeowner and caused legitimate damage to her property for several years is resolved. But how did we get to that situation? How did this woman end up helpless without any support? There are problems to address. There just aren’t enough people, and the systems aren’t always in place. So, it goes back to the tiny wins that keep the juices flowing for this work and drive the bigger change. I love that the solution came from a random contact form. I didn’t think anyone used that.”
- Laura Ginn, Green City Coalition Program Manager, St. Louis Development Corporation
We hope you can join us to celebrate community builders like Laura at our 8th Annual Community Building Awards on July 29!
Photostory by Humans of St. Louis, Maleeha Samer, and Colleen O’Connell Smyth. Photostory narratives represent the opinions of the speaker(s) featured only and do not necessarily represent the views of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis.
