St. Louis is sometimes expectantly referred to as part of the “Bio Belt,” a significant zone for research and development in the plant and life sciences. Certainly it comes by this reputation honestly, boasting world-class research institutions such as Washington University School of Medicine, the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. Yet, as with so much else about our metropolitan area, it remains a fair question to ask what stake black folks have in these regional initiatives.
Holding a majority of the city’s population and larger than the national average of the county’s population, African Americans in St. Louis need to be utilized proportionately in all areas of the workplace if the region is to thrive. The fact that our major corporations and elected officials, and not only black activists, are coming to this realization is a very promising development indeed for the black community and the rest of St. Louis.
The latest success story in this regard is to be found in a novel, precarious, but inspired collaboration between Better Family Life, St. Louis Community College, Kelly Scientific Resources (a staffing agency) and Centocor Biologics (a Johnson & Johnson company based in Berkeley). With help from WorkforceStLouis 2.0, the East-West Gateway Alliance and the County Executive’s office, this grab bag of community, education and business entities have created what appears to be a viable pipeline to get relatively marginal local workers (most of them black) trained and integrated into the Bio Belt.
Though they refer to community service as well, the businesses in question certainly are motivated by the bottom line (a sustainable motive), as they need competent entry-level workers from the local economy, and the public schools are not producing them reliably in large numbers. The promise from biotech businesses like Centocor Biologics that they will interview graduates of the training program adds a great incentive for students to stay the course and learn from Better Family Life and the community college the basic workplace and science skills they will need to succeed in the biotechnical field. Education is empowering.
Donn Rubin, executive director of the Coalition for Life and Plant Sciences, said, “We need to populate this industry so it will succeed. Our region’s most important asset is our people.” This is very true – and, of course, the valuable asset in question includes the region’s black people. And the more black St. Louis is included in the area’s economy – in particular, in emerging, technologically driven, forward-looking areas likes the plant and life sciences – at an earlier stage of development, the more likely it becomes that our region finally will begin to address, in a meaningful way, the stagnation, segregation and economic disparities that have defined it for so long and kept so many promising professionals – especially minority professionals – from staying here or moving here and helping to move this region forward.