Love Your Neighbor

When Jaylan Conway thinks back on his experience with LOVEtheLOU, an old proverb comes to mind: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

Conway grew up in the Greater Ville neighborhood and started participating in programming through LOVEtheLOU — a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching lives in North City — in 2018, when he was 12 years old. Through LOVEtheLOU’s programming, he learned how to cut grass, garden, grow vegetables, tend to chickens, use tools, and even build himself a bed frame. Those hard skills have served him well into adulthood, empowering him, teaching him how to be self-sufficient, and, as he puts it, keeping him off the streets. But just as important were the soft skills he learned, from problem-solving to building relationships. 

Pointing to himself as an example, he’s passionate about the role that LOVEtheLOU can play in transforming lives. He started interning with the organization and eventually joined the staff full-time as a key leader, a role that allows him to mentor kids and young adults like himself and show them a different way.

“I’ve lost friends and family to violence and jail, and I feel like LOVEtheLOU itself has saved so many lives, mine included,” Conway says. “This program has really been a big pillar in the community as far as just helping people and building people up. It’s planting that seed, watering the seed, and helping it grow. I’m an example of that — I planted myself, but they were able to water me, help me grow into this big old tree that’s still growing.”

Founded in 2009 and based in The Ville neighborhood, LOVEtheLOU aims to revitalize North St. Louis from within, involving neighbors like Conway as an active part of the solution. The organization strategically focuses on a few North St. Louis neighborhoods (Vandeventer, Lewis Place, The Ville, Greater Ville, and Fountain Park) and operates from its Resource Hub at the corner of North Taylor Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. LOVEtheLOU currently serves 62 individuals, including 50 students and 12 Persons of Peace, who are longtime community members who help make decisions and facilitate programming. 

Executive director and founder Lucas Rouggly says LOVEtheLOU’s main goal is to see North City flourish, and he sees relationships as a cornerstone of the solution. Rouggly’s faith led him to found LOVEtheLOU with his wife, Alana — the couple prayed about where they felt there was a need and where they could help, and eventually narrowed it down to North St. Louis, moving their family to Enright Avenue in 2011. While Rouggly is a pastor, he couldn’t picture himself preaching behind a pulpit on Sunday mornings, and feels that LOVEtheLOU is a way for him to preach with his hands and show love to his neighbors through tangible actions.

“We want to see the existing neighbors equipped and empowered to speak out and speak into a vision of what a new North City could look like,” Rouggly says. “One of the things that LOVEtheLOU as an organization gets to do is to continually be passing the microphone to our neighbors to say, ‘Hey, what would you like to see happen? And not just to use their voice, but to actually have them as the influence for new development. North City will be rebuilt, but it needs to happen from the neighbors who have actually been there, as opposed to outsiders coming in to say what it should be rebuilt as.”

By focusing on relationships and getting behind the ideas of neighbors themselves, Rouggly believes LOVEtheLOU is better equipped to tackle the issues facing the community in North City, many of which are interconnected. Through needs assessments, neighbors have identified issues such as housing, education, and job pathways, and LOVEtheLOU’s multi-dimensional approach is strategically designed to meet those neighbors where they are by bringing resources to them and empowering them through holistic mentoring. 

Youth mentorship is the bread and butter of LOVEtheLOU’s work. The LIFT mentoring program, which was Conway’s introduction to the organization, aims to provide a safe space and support for kids and young adults between the ages of 12 and 25 years old, focusing on five growth pillars: education, community, career, self-care, and future-oriented. The mentoring program focuses on building confidence and empowering students through weekly small groups and helping them connect with the community at weekly Thursday night dinners. 

Today, Conway is a key leader in the program. He has seen countless examples of students overcoming shyness and becoming leaders through LOVEtheLOU’s mentorship program. The small groups in particular give kids and young adults a safe space to talk about what they’re going through while also teaching skills such as conflict resolution and emotional management. 

Creating a Resource Hub

In 2022, LOVEtheLOU purchased the property now home to its Resource Hub, and Rouggly says having a brick-and-mortar home has helped the organization grow and offer more programs and projects. In addition to Tuesday night small groups and Thursday night community dinners, the Resource Hub is also home to the organization’s Maker’s Space, featuring several hands-on learning stations where students can develop skills such as woodworking, sewing, 3D printing, digital design, button-making, jewelry-making, glass fusing, and pottery. Certain products are even made available for sale in the Brick City Shop, LOVEtheLOU’s e-commerce platform, which also sells products made by neighbors in North City.

India Brown, who manages the Maker’s Space and Brick City Shop and was born and raised in North City, says that offering creative outlets and fostering entrepreneurial spirit among youth serves LOVEtheLOU’s overall mission to uplift the community.

“When I was younger, I needed a creative outlet for just the hardships of growing up in North City,” Brown says. “When I used to go to church, there were always things that I could do, as far as arts and crafts, and there were things that we didn’t have that I wish we did have. There are different ways for kids to cope with the hardships growing up, so I try to provide that, and also give them the mindset that you don’t have to be a rapper or a basketball player — you can do multiple different things. The youth are the future; that’s how we uplift our community.”

Brown says it’s been rewarding to watch kids become passionate about different skills and realize their potential. One intern, for instance, didn’t have much of an interest in making anything until she fell in love with T-shirt printing; now, she hopes to start her own business. Two other students want to launch their own record label. Students who have gone through LOVEtheLOU’s mentorship program have gone on to careers in carpentry and construction, communications, youth mentorship, and the military, and received CDL licenses and certifications. 

“When students in North St. Louis get resources and know how to take advantage of them, they just take off,” Rouggly says.

Rouggly also sees the Resource Hub as a community asset in and of itself. Within a month of  the new space opening its doors, a student fell asleep on a couch in the teen lounge, which the LOVEtheLOU team celebrated, recognizing that neighbors see it as a safe place where they can let their guard down.

Helping Hands

Neighbors especially leaned on the Resource Hub in the wake of the devastating EF3 tornado that tore through St. Louis, reaching peak strength in North City, on May 16, 2025. While the roof was ripped off of the Resource Hub, LOVEtheLOU wasted no time mobilizing to support neighbors. Following a model developed by Resource Hub Senior Director Tawana Lawson during the 2020 global health crisis, LOVEtheLOU delivered food and supplies directly to neighbors who were not able to leave their homes. The organization even partnered with RomoGIS to use geospatial technology to identify those in need in the area.

Recovery efforts are now part of LOVEtheLOU’s long-term vision, as the tornado made many needs even more urgent, and the organization is working to keep the needs of tornado victims top-of-mind for all St. Louisans. Rouggly says St. Louis has played an invaluable role in helping grow LOVEtheLOU over the years. While not everyone has moved into the neighborhood themselves, as the Rougglys did for many years, thousands of St. Louisans have volunteered with the organization over the past 16 years, which he sees as a testament to the amount of people wanting to do good in the region. 

Rouggly isn’t content to rest on those laurels, however — instead, LOVEtheLOU will keep pushing. Moving forward, the organization is working to develop a root system of people who want to give back to North City and is expanding its Persons of Peace from 12 to 30 people, equipping each with as many resources as it can. LOVEtheLOU is also launching the “Rooted Together” program, which will connect 30 anchoring neighbors with 30 churches in the region. The expanded programming builds on LOVEtheLOU’s commitment to make North City, and the rest of St. Louis, an even better place to live.

“I’ve really fallen in love with the way that St. Louis carries itself,” Rouggly says. “We’re not a showy city. There are so many people who not only want to do good in our city, but they actually are doing good. We could easily puff out our chest and say, ‘Look at us,’ but we don’t. I think there’s a humility that St. Louis has; that good Midwest value that’s shown through. I’m really proud of our city, and I’m driven by this fact that I know we could be better. I love St. Louis’ potential. I think that’s what is driving me, is that I see our potential as a city. It makes me angry that people would pass us over or fly over or think that we’re on the decline, because they’re just missing it.”