Health Calls Season 7, Episode 4 explores how economic development, entrepreneurship, and community investment can improve health outcomes across the United States. Host Brian Reardon welcomes Shekinah Mitchell, Director of Neighborhood Engagement for Community Health at Bon Secours Richmond, to discuss the innovative SEED (Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development) program.
Health Calls Season 7, Episode 4 explores how economic development, entrepreneurship, and community investment can improve health outcomes across the United States. Host Brian Reardon welcomes Shekinah Mitchell, Director of Neighborhood Engagement for Community Health at Bon Secours Richmond, to discuss the innovative SEED (Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development) program.
Rooted in Richmond’s East End, SEED helps local entrepreneurs access funding, coaching, and business development resources while addressing long-standing challenges linked to poverty, disinvestment, and health inequities. Mitchell explains how strengthening small businesses creates jobs, builds wealth, revitalizes commercial corridors, and contributes to healthier communities. The conversation also highlights the role of relationship-building, advocacy, and what Mitchell calls “radical imagination” in rethinking healthcare’s responsibility beyond hospital walls.
Brian Reardon (00:05):
Greetings and welcome back to Health Calls, the podcast of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. I'm your host, Brian Reardon, and with me is Josh Matejka, our executive producer. Hey, Josh.
Josh Matejka (00:16):
Hey, Brian.
Brian Reardon (00:17):
This episode, we're going to be talking about business grants and community health. And Josh, like a lot of the episodes that we tape, a lot of times we draw from maybe an article that's been published in Catholic Health World or Health Progress. In this case, this was a story that recently appeared in Catholic Health World, and we thought it was a good topic to include in this season's theme around health reimagined. Can you share a little bit about why we chose this particular program to highlight in this conversation?
Josh Matejka (00:46):
Yeah. I mean, so I think personally, when I first read the story, the thing that took me aback was this is more a story about small businesses and communities than it is about healthcare. And that challenged my perception of how I think about health and the health of communities. And when I reread the story in the context of, okay, maybe this would be a great fit for health calls, I started to see the depth with which Bon Secours was thinking about this program as a part of community health. And one of the things that I really appreciate about the way that Shekinah talks about this, and she'll break this open more eloquently than me obviously, but the way that she talks about how the last decades of their community have been impacted by things like redlining and all of the things that kind of fracture communities.
(01:37)
And so when they look at investing in small businesses, it's not just, oh, we believe in what they're doing as a business, so here's a grant. A lot of places can do that, but it's looked at as a community vitalization thing and that plays into health outcomes. So I'm really excited for people to hear how Shekinah talks about this because I think it's going to challenge their perceptions of what's happening in a community that may not be considered healthcare proper is actually very tied into the health of those communities.
Brian Reardon (02:08):
Well, let's bring in Shekinah Mitchell. She is Director of Neighborhood Engagement for Community Health for Bon Secours Richmond. Welcome, Shekinah.
Shekinah Mitchell (02:16):
Hello.
Brian Reardon (02:18):
To start with, tell us a little bit about your role or what does it mean to be a director of neighborhood engagement? I don't think that's a title or a job description that maybe it is more common than we think, but I'm curious about what does your day-to-day work look like?
Shekinah Mitchell (02:33):
Yes, it's a great question. And I also just want to say, Josh, it made my heart happy hearing your reaction to the article. I'm hoping that more people will be able to expand how all of us really think about health. Yes, so my title, it is a bit unique. Most directors within a hospital or healthcare system really are focused on patients and the folks who are being served within the healthcare system. And my role and the team that I support is really community facing. So we're looking at residents who a lot of them are patients, but not exclusively patients. They are community members. And so day-to-day, honestly, my role looks really different. It could be meeting with a nonprofit partner. It could be talking with a facilitator for one of our fitness classes. It could be connecting with a local small business about our Seed Grant program.
(03:31)
It could be partnering with a community organization to do a home ownership club at our site. So it's fun. And I do want to admit as well, and not an admission, it's something I'm really proud of. I am from the neighborhood that I get to serve. In fact, on my mom's side, five generations is from the east end of Richmond. Now six, actually. I have a nephew who is here too. And so it is deeply personal and meaningful because so many of the people that we're actively serving, we have something called Centers for Healthy Living. We have one in the East End. We also have another in the Petersburg community. But so many of the people that we are actively serving are my neighbors, are people who I go to church with, there are businesses that I patron as a member of the East End.
(04:24)
So it's a joy, but again, it looks very different every single day and it is really community facing as opposed to focused on patients within the hospital setting.
Brian Reardon (04:35):
Oh, well, thank you for sharing that personal connection because I think really a lot of what we're about in Catholic healthcare is relationships. So I would imagine in your role, relationships is probably everything, right?
Shekinah Mitchell (04:48):
No, I would say they are. I mean, our work moves at the pace of trust and the way that you establish trust, build trust, sustain trust is through relationships. It doesn't happen without that. So you're right, that's our lifeblood.
Brian Reardon (05:05):
Well, let's get into the conversation about this initiative, SEED. What does SEED stand for again?
Shekinah Mitchell (05:12):
Yeah. So SEED stands for Supporting East End Entrepreneurship Development.
Brian Reardon (05:18):
So it's really about helping with economic development, which I find really interesting now serving in Catholic healthcare for over 20 years. Prior to that though, I actually worked in economic development for the state of Illinois. And really when we talked about economic development, it really came back to quality of life. And I think if you flip it, that would be one way that we would try to promote economic development in the state of Illinois to talk about all of the different non-business aspects and benefits of locating in a place like Chicago, the quality of life. But I think what you're looking at is how important it is for economic development to bring up the quality of life in that neighborhood in particular. Can you tell me a little bit about how this program started and what the genesis is?
Shekinah Mitchell (06:01):
Yes, great question. So the SEED program actually started now over 15 years ago, and I will say the neighborhood looks different. I mean, our neighborhoods are always evolving and shifting and changing, but if I rewind to about 15 years ago, our neighborhood had a lot of vacant properties, blighted properties, and we think of some of our main corridors or arterial streets. For us, it's 25th Street, it's Nine Mile Road, but those are the main gateways into the neighborhood and can almost seem like the front porch for the community at large. They are the places that get the most traffic and create a perception of what this neighborhood is. And so the original idea for SEED was really about how do we activate small businesses to repurpose these blighted properties, some of these vacant properties to now have active thriving businesses? What does it look like for us to revitalize these commercial corridors and then see the ripple effects of what that does for the community?
(07:10)
What if people are not just driving past to get to downtown, but see this also as a destination where they can spend money, where they can spend time, and where the residents of this community can have access to more services and resources that they need for themselves. And so that was the nexus of the program. It was to see, again, these primary commercial corridors thriving and active and back to life. And as we fast-forward to where we are now, there are lots of businesses and people who see the value in our neighborhood, but now it's become almost more competitive because the neighborhood is gentrifying, it can be harder and more expensive to actually access housing or commercial real estate. And so we have evolved the program based on where the neighborhood is right now and look at things like who are the legacy businesses in the community that may not own their buildings, but could really use an infusion of capital to help them adapt to where the neighborhood is right now?
(08:15)
What does it look like to create resources that encourage further investment and deeper connection with the neighborhood? One of the things we talk about is not a business not just being geographically located in the East End, but the business themselves seeing themselves as a neighbor.
Brian Reardon (08:34):
And this question may seem a little bit from left field, but roll back 15 years ago and even to what you were just describing, the evolution of this, how does imagination come into play when you're making decisions about how to evolve the program?
Shekinah Mitchell (08:51):
Yeah, I love that question. One of the
Brian Reardon (08:56):
Terms
Shekinah Mitchell (08:57):
I use often is the phrase radical imagination, because I think that's what it requires for us to do programs like seed and to evolve them. And when I say radical imagination, what I mean is there are some challenges within our community that have been persistent across time. If we think about things like poverty or even look at how other communities, not just here, but around the world are grappling with things like urbanization and gentrification, it can feel like, well, there's not much that we can do. These are stubborn issues that we are powerless in. The market is going to do what the market is going to do. But I think radical imagination pushes us to say, what is the best and highest possible good for this community? And then to say, how do we look outside of what's traditionally been done or even as a part of this call, what traditionally has been the role of healthcare and say, what if we could expand that outside of the boundaries of what we've traditionally thought of? What if, for example, there did not need to be a 20-year life expectancy gap? What if we didn't just accept that? What if your zip code and your address didn't determine how long your life was going to be?
(10:17)
And again, I think it takes audacity, it takes boldness, it takes courage, and we don't always do it perfectly. There are things that you learn and you get better at, but to even push ourselves to say, we believe that the people of this community, the patients we serve, the residents of this neighborhood are incredibly amazing people. They are assets of our community. And if we look at our assets and not just our challenges, how can we imagine a future where everyone can do well and then dig into the weeds of what does that look like?
Brian Reardon (10:50):
Yeah, and I love that you use the word bold and audacious. So if we look at the practical aspects, you can be bold and audacious, come up with ideas, but at the end of the day, as you said, you've got to try some things, you've got to make it work. So for our listeners, and again, that's the beauty of, I think what we do at Catholic Healthcare is sharing some of these best practices so that other members of CHA and really others in healthcare might be able to learn. What would you tell people that are listening right now saying, huh, we have a community that could probably benefit from a similar approach. What are some of maybe the first practical steps they should take to get something like this off the ground?
Shekinah Mitchell (11:28):
Yeah, so as director of neighborhood engagement, I would start with actually engaging your small business community, right? One of the things that my team, one of our mantras is that we believe community members are our best co-physicians for improving community health. It means that we believe that it is within the context of relationship with partnership and engagement that we actually get closer to the solutions. People who are closest to the challenges often are closest to the solutions. And so we see them as invaluable partners with us. So I would say one, talk with the small business owners that you actually want to support and serve, get a deeper understanding of what they're seeing. And before creating a program, have them partner with you on imagining what that program can be, have their fingerprints actually on what you create. So I'd start with some engagement and it could be a focus group, it could be one-on-one conversations.
(12:32)
I'd steer away from a survey or maybe the survey could be a tool to then follow up with conversation, but I'd start with engagement. The second thing that I would do is move forward with understanding the landscape of other entrepreneurial resources, because it may not be developing a new program, it may be partnering with existing support, services, resources and pulling them more deeply into your community. It could be building more awareness, but leveraging the assets that already exist would be my second piece of advice. And then my third piece of advice in terms of standing up a program similar to Seed would be really hone in on what you want to accomplish with the program and then be really, really clear about how the program is structured to lead to those outcomes. What I mean by that is, so for example, we've known that we wanted the program to support and serve businesses that are deeply embedded within this community, but years ago our application did not reflect that.
(13:48)
So we would have people start the process, they'd fill out the application, go through the coaching, and then get into... We also have them do a five-minute presentation so we could, again, see people, meet people, talk with them, and it was later on in the process that they had a deeper understanding of what we were looking for. And I think being clear at the outset, here are our goals, this is what we're trying to accomplish, and even how the program is marketed, what outreach efforts look like, and how it is structured all point to the outcomes that you're looking for. So those would be my three pieces of advice. Engage the community, tap into the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem so that you're not replicating. And then also, it's like the basics, use a logic model, know what you're trying to accomplish, and then ensure that all of the pieces of the process are actually clearly aligning towards the outcome.
Brian Reardon (14:44):
Yeah, and I know it's really difficult to measure a social driver or social determinant. It takes many, many years, but are there any metrics or anything you're seeing that because of what Seed has done over the last 15 years or so that you've seen a particular health outcome improve or some other socioeconomic indicator that would indicate success?
Shekinah Mitchell (15:03):
Yeah, that's a great question. So I would say it is harder to draw a straight line between the seed investment and the seed programs and things like life expectancy. But we do know that in particular, economic investment and creating more opportunities for upward mobility makes a significant difference in the individual life of that entrepreneur and potentially the lives of their families and their household in addition to how these businesses are then creating jobs, creating economic opportunities for others. And I may have said this already, but we see poverty as the most stubborn social driver of health. So one of the other mantras for my team is we believe that increasing wealth can correlate to increased health, and that's why we have small business investment. For some people, it may be a job and it may be a career, and we have a line of programming within my team that is focused on bringing on community members to be trained and upskilled into upwardly mobile healthcare career pathways.
(16:14)
But outside of our career pathways work, our small business investments are really the way that we invest in the economic thriving of our community. And so it is seed, we have a commissary kitchen for food-based businesses, we have a small business bootcamp for those who maybe you have an idea, but you don't have a small business plan, you're not sure where to get started. We offer a free five-week course at our center, and we do a 201 in response to some of our seed businesses who are trying to go to the next level. They're looking at more complex things within their businesses like pricing and scaling and expansion. And so our small business portfolio and our career pathways work are the anchors that we use to say we need to support our community in moving out of poverty, moving into economic freedom and into upward mobility in order to then address so many of the social drivers of health.
(17:12)
So again, it's harder to draw that straight line, but based on our experience and based on our research and what we've learned, we believe that the impacts will come.
Brian Reardon (17:25):
Oh, it definitely sounds like it. Josh, Shakinah has given us a lot to think about, really put together a wonderful story about the work they're doing. Your takeaways from this conversation?
Josh Matejka (17:38):
Yeah, certainly the level of the depth and nuance that you've gone into in this conversation, Shekinah, is I think super rewarding for me to listen to, but I also think explains to all of our listeners why I was so excited to have you on the show and why Brian was as well. I am really curious specifically, you talked earlier in the conversation about relationship and how pretty much everything that goes into this work is relationship-based. I am curious specifically about the role advocacy plays in this because I'm sure that as much as Bon Secours would love to be able to provide the social and financial capital to make the East End a completely thriving place, you can't do it all on your own. You need partners, you need probably at least government support in some ways, in some areas. So what role does advocacy play, either your local advocacy teams or partner organizations that you work with, or maybe you specifically, what kind of role does advocacy play in this work and how can it help move this program and the businesses that it supports forward?
Shekinah Mitchell (18:46):
Thank you for asking that question. I think advocacy can be a loaded term depending on who you're talking to, their experience with it. But when I think of advocacy, I essentially think of partnering, using your voice to partner with people who can make a change. And I think it all goes back to where we started this conversation in some ways, which is around engagement. What we've learned not to take for granted is that when we have an opportunity to hear, for example, from our city council officials, when we're talking with the leaders of the Small Business Development Association, when we're talking with some of our nonprofit partners that are anchored in the small business community, we can't take for granted or even assume that they also are talking to the very small businesses, local small businesses that we are connected with within this neighborhood. And we also cannot assume that our small businesses know what resources are available to them, know what the city has been doing to actually incentivize growth and also invest in small business development.
(20:05)
And so a big part of advocacy in this role is what our council person would call stringing the pearls. If we are listening and we are engaging and understand what's happening on the ground with our small businesses, and we're also in spaces with leaders in our entrepreneurial ecosystem, how can we connect those dots? What does it look like to say, "Hey, let's make sure you all, did you all know that the city offers these resources? Let's get you connected with our contacts there. For the city, did you all know about we've got interest in this community member, but here's where they're running into challenges within the system or they haven't heard back on their small business application." And it may not be, again, traditionally the way people think about advocacy, but it is using those relationships to sort of bring awareness to where there are gaps, where people don't realize what's accessible to them and where our other partners...
(21:06)
And sometimes that includes us as well too, right? We're not excluded from that, but where there may be something that we're missing or a part of the conversation we haven't been in tuned with. And then saying, "Hey, how do we partner on ideas to make this better?" It means, fortunately for us, we actually live in a neighborhood that our current mayor lives in our neighborhood and has been deeply invested in the success of our community. It means leveraging those relationships and saying, "Hey, again, this is what we're seeing. Let's connect those dots. Let's make sure..." Again, as we've said before, the folks who are closest to the challenges are in relationship with, are connected to, are tied to those who can move the levers of power in order to get closer to those solutions.
Brian Reardon (21:58):
Well, Shekinah, this conversation, if you've been talking, keeping reminded of our vision statement, we will empower bold change to elevate human flourishing. And I think the Seed program really is about human flourishing. So congratulations, best wishes on continued success, an exciting program, and really appreciate you taking time to share some of the learnings with us.
Shekinah Mitchell (22:20):
Thank you. No, thank you all for giving us an opportunity to amplify this program. It's a joy to be able to do this work. Again, I feel like the East End is sacred ground and Seed is one of those things helping to till and nourish the soil. And so I would love if other folks are inspired and maybe there are things we can learn from others across the country as they embark on their journeys as well, but appreciate you all for giving us an opportunity to elevate and amplify the program.
Brian Reardon (22:51):
Yeah, and appreciate your passion and commitment. Again, that was Shekinah Mitchell. She's director of Neighborhood Engagement for Community Health for Bon Secours Richmond. I'm your host, Brian Reardon. Josh Matejka is our executive producer. Health Calls is produced at One Studios here in St. Louis, and our scheduling producer is Sarah Marchant. We appreciate the team effort that goes into putting on Health Calls. Of course, you can always listen to Health Calls via the CHA website. That's chausa.org/podcast. And by the way, if you go to that page, there'll be a link to the article that we mentioned at the beginning of the program about the Seed program from a recent Catholic Health World issue. You can also access Health Calls on all of your favorite streaming platforms, and when do so, please give us some feedback, give us a five-star rating, tell us what you think we always love hearing from you.
(23:40)
And as always, thanks for listening.