A family needs a home, so it stands to reason that an organization with the name and mission of Better Family Life would dedicate nearly 15 years to establishing a facility to house its many programs that have been operated out of more than 10 satellite sites. With the $13 million renovation of the former Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary building nearly complete, last week the organization opened its long-awaited Better Family Life Cultural, Educational and Business Center, located at 5415 Page Blvd.
We would like to congratulate Better Family Life founders Malik and DeBorah Ahmed, their staff and many supporters for their tireless persistence in realizing – against great odds – their dream of opening a cultural center to express the history, art and (DeBorah’s specialty) dance of peoples of Africa and the Diaspora. Though DeBorah’s artist heart drove this dream for many years, much of what will be accomplished in the center will be very different from African dance. Better Family Life has become a regional lynchpin in much-needed workforce and community development, providing GED classes, skill-based job training, housing down payment assistance programs, business seminars and motivational training.
We also congratulate everyone in the organization for receiving their charter from NeighborWorks America, a network of affordable housing and community development nonprofits, which promises to bring them greater access to funding opportunities, technical assistance and programmatic support. A family needs a village as well as a home, and NeighborWorks America adds new, broader support to the complex and impressive streams of revenue and resources Better Family Life has brought together. As state Rep. Karla May said at the grand opening, Better Family Life has “the ability to bring people and resources to the table and create partnerships in order to accomplish their goals. We are in this together.” Indeed – and we are much stronger as a community by having Better family Life in the struggle with us.
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Speaking of Karla May, we would not like to lose her as a state legislator, but we would love to gain her as a citywide official. Michael McMillan, who is resigning as St. Louis license collector to accept the position of president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, has recommended May to Governor Jay Nixon as his successor. We strongly agree with his recommendation. May has a degree in business with an emphasis on finance from Saint Louis University and ample experience in the private sector, working the past 15 years at AT&T. She has served in the state House since 2010, showing an ability to work across the aisle to get allocations and attach amendments to bills. We are confident she would be a competent and effective city official and that she deserves a boost up in her political career. We strongly urge Gov. Nixon to appoint Karla May as license collector.
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The Ferguson-Florissant School District is fully accredited, and Prop A on the August 6 ballot will help keep it that way. If passed, Prop A would increase the operating tax levy in the district by $0.75 per $100 of assessed valuation to pay general operating expenses. (For the owner of a home valued at $100,000, the levy would result in a tax increase of approximately $142 per year.) The district argues that it needs these funds to maintain staff and effective student/teacher ratios in the wake of cuts in state funding and lower property tax revenue caused by falling home values, and we agree. We urge a vote of YES on Prop A.
