Editor鈥檚 note: This story was originally published by the , a news partner of 漏 2024 外网天堂.
EAST ST. LOUIS 鈥� Learning the importance of helping people in his community is a lesson Alex Fennoy understood at an early age.
His mother, Toni, and his father, Nino, were teachers in East St. Louis School District 189. His dad was also an esteemed track and field coach and mentor for kids in the city. His grandfather was a precinct committee officer for East St. Louis..
East St. Louis raised Fennoy. It鈥檚 where he developed a firm support system with family and people in the community that translated into a career of connecting underserved Black areas to financial services. As a result of his work, the honored him last fall with its George Bailey Distinguished Service Award.
As the executive vice president of community and economic development for St. Louis-based Midwest BankCentre, Fennoy wants to make sure that low-income populations have access to banking needs. It鈥檚 a mission that comes naturally for Fennoy, who says his parents always instilled in him a duty to help those who were less fortunate.
鈥淚 was blessed to have a two-parent home,鈥� said Fennoy, who now lives in O鈥橣allon. 鈥淏oth my parents are retired educators in the public school system for East St. Louis District 189, and I was able to see that other kids didn鈥檛 have that. I didn鈥檛 look at that as something so much better for me. I looked at it as a blessing, and then never looked down on others who didn鈥檛 have what we had.鈥�
鈥淭here was a lot of poverty (in East St. Louis). I didn鈥檛 know the word poverty at the time, but I knew we had more than most. We weren鈥檛 rich, but we were middle class. But my parents put it in my head that it was a blessing and a responsibility to do more for others than it is 鈥業鈥檓 better than them鈥�, so I never had that conflict.鈥�
鈥楿nbanked:鈥� little access to banking services
The COVID-19 pandemic inevitably exacerbated the recurrent between Black and white Americans as Black communities disproportionately contracted the virus itself and labor market disparities worsened. In the second quarter of 2020, white households held 84% of total household wealth in the United States compared to 4% in Black households, according to the Brookings Institute.
One factor contributing to this gap is little access to mainstream banking in low-income Black communities. Increased can save individual Black Americans up to $40,000 over their lifetimes, according to a 2019 McKinsey & Company report.
It鈥檚 why Fennoy in 2017 on the campus of Friendly Temple Church in St. Louis鈥� North County. The church is located in the Wells-Goodfellow Neighborhood, a historical underserved area in which over, says Michael Jones, pastor of Friendly Temple.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an unbanked community, which means that when people receive dollars to invest or to bank, there wasn鈥檛 a bank within the radius of a mile or two in our area to provide those resources, or if homeowners wanted home loans, if small business wanted loans, there were no banking institutions within the immediate community,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also a food desert where there are no shopping centers or food centers. People would have to leave the community and take the resources out of the community to gain access to opportunities.鈥�
Jones said Fennoy, through the Friendly Temple鈥檚 partnership with the bank, is helping the church鈥檚 effort to restore the neighborhood by bringing more businesses to the area.
鈥淎lex knows our community,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a part of our community. He can relate and identify with the challenges of our community, and he has a passion to want to elevate or raise our community to levels of equity. He knew that this is an unbanked community, and our community needed the services and the resources.鈥�
similar to those in Wells-Goodfellow. The city is a food desert, with few grocery stores, and lacks a hospital. Additionally, about 40% of its residents live in poverty. But that鈥檚 not the East St. Louis that Fennoy remembers.
鈥淚 grew up in the 70s and 80s as a kid, and East St. Louis, at the time, still had tons of opportunity and over 50,000 city population and a bustling small city,鈥� Fennoy, 52, said. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 as bustling as maybe 30 years earlier, but it was nowhere near the kind of deficit situation that it鈥檚 in now.鈥�
鈥淓ast St. Louis is about 89 blocks, and we lived on 76th Street and my paternal grandmother lived on the equivalent of 15th Street, not a straight shot, but almost. At 8 years old I could ride my bike from 76th Street down to 15th. That鈥檚 my East St. Louis.鈥�
Fennoy remembers making frequent trips as a kid to the candy store, where he first practiced saving.
鈥淚f somebody gave me a quarter - my parents, grandparents, my uncle, older cousins - because I did some chore or because they wanted me to have some money in my pocket,鈥� Fennoy said. 鈥淚t never dawned on me to spend the entire quarter. I remember going to the neighborhood candy store and thinking I have a quarter but I鈥檓 not going to spend all this. I鈥檒l put the rest in my piggy bank. That鈥檚 never changed from 5 to now.鈥�
鈥楧ivine intervention鈥�
Although banking seemed like a natural fit for Fennoy, it wasn鈥檛 the career he initially chose. After graduating from Lincoln High School, Fennoy attended Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was on a path to become a dentist. However, as he neared entering the pre-dental track, he became less interested in the field and more interested in the business classes he was already taking,which led him to switch his major to accounting. Fennoy describes the change as a blessing in disguise.
鈥淚 used to say years ago that it was an accident, but I鈥檓 a little wiser now to know that it was not an accident,鈥� Fennoy said. 鈥淔or me, my faith is the most important, (so) it was divine intervention and being led.鈥�
That change in academic majors led to a nearly 30-year banking career for Fennoy that includes his financial work for banks like Boatmen鈥檚, Cass, Regions and National City. Although he said his early career is what fed his appetite to work with nonprofits and churches in underserved areas, it鈥檚 his current job with Midwest Bank Centre that he believes best aligns with his purpose.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about diversity of thought, but it also is about the diversity of people鈥檚 experiences,鈥� Fennoy, who has worked with the bank since 2010, said about reaching Black communities.
鈥淚 think our philosophy is also that we believe that is going to be needed, especially in historically underserved areas, because it鈥檚 a level of hand-holding that, when you鈥檙e building that trust, has to happen.鈥�
In January, Fennoy and his team plan to launch a program that will lend up to $200 million in community development loans for the next five years. The loans will be available for minority small business owners or businesses located in low to moderate income areas. Fennoy said although most of the loans will be awarded to owners in St. Louis, a small portion will be open to those who live elsewhere, like the metro-east. He said he鈥檚 also working on putting a branch of the bank in East St. Louis, although he doesn鈥檛 know when.
Retired Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee said Fennoy鈥檚 work has left an indelible mark on her eponymous foundation. Joyner-Kersee was coached by his dad and remembers meeting Fennoy as a kid. Alex is currently the secretary of the foundation鈥檚 board of directors.
鈥淛ust to see how he has grown into a young man that takes the community seriously, that looks to give back and try to spread and share his knowledge, especially dealing with the bank sector and trying to get people to understand what it means about being unbanked, is great,鈥� Joyner-Kersee said. 鈥淎lso him being a part of serving on the board of the foundation and helping to secure opportunities for us that鈥檚 fair and equitable is great.鈥�
Joyner-Kersee said Fennoy was instrumental in helping the foundation qualify for a Paycheck Protection Loan, a federal program designed to help small businesses and nonprofits continue to pay employees during the pandemic, this year. She said his financial knowledge has been invaluable to her team and the East St. Louis community.
鈥淎 lot of people in the community go unbanked and lack the understanding of having a bank account, so I think his leadership goes beyond his banking experience,鈥� Joyner-Kersee said. 鈥淎lex really does care about the community. When you have someone that cares about the community and the relationships, then you start seeing them beyond just that relationship. It鈥檚 a true family.鈥�
Being honored for his work in the community was a humbling experience for Fennoy. Each year, the American Bankers Association awards a non-CEO bank employee for their dedication to improving the communities they serve. Fennoy was one of two recipients.
鈥淚t鈥檚 special, but at the same token, the work ain鈥檛 done because so many people in the whole community will be better if we have stronger businesses all throughout our region. If we have opportunities for more people to work because we know that deters crimes. It鈥檚 not brutal policing. It鈥檚 more jobs, it鈥檚 more education, it鈥檚 more opportunities. When those things are more, the direct inverse effect on all the negative things that we do to one another in society decreases. It鈥檚 proven.鈥�
DeAsia Page is a reporter with the , a news partner of 漏 2024 外网天堂.
