Empowering East St. Louis Youth
R3 Development empowers the youth of East St. Louis with job opportunities to improve their economic futures. R3 recruits, trains, and employs these individuals through social enterprise efforts such as rehabilitating homes in the East St. Louis area. Dave Kuntz, Executive Director, leads with the heart, not only revitalizing dilapidated buildings, but more importantly, by creating meaningful employment opportunities for the youth in the community.
R3 is invested heavily in the development of the leadership and character of their participants. R3 programs are equipping trainees with life skills that will transform them into confident individuals who leave East St. Louis better than they found it. Each individual who participates in R3’s programming is treated as family and given the love and support every child deserves.
Canine Construction
Most recently, the R3 Development Summer Work Academy 2021 partnered with Gateway Pet Guardians to build dog houses for the community at an affordable price. This eight week paid work employment program works on leadership development, but provides so much more to the students, including things such as daily breakfast and lunch, tutoring in math and reading comprehension, and weekly field trips.
Partnering with WIN
The team at WIN Warehouse is looking forward to the chance to see R3’s mission in action, but in the meantime we’ve had the opportunity to support them with needed resources at a greatly reduced cost. It will come to no surprise to anyone that the biggest donation received to date is hundreds of safety glasses. They’ve also been able to pick up air circulators and space heaters to keep the job sites more comfortable in the temperamental midwest weather.
“WIN has been an exceptional partner in helping provide supplies needed to complete our projects and fulfill our mission. Countless times they have gone above and beyond to help us in a timely and professional manner. Their team is so friendly and such a blessing to work with, and they will continue to be the first place we call to find the tools and supplies we need.”
Dave Kuntz, R3 Development Executive Director
While we continue to navigate a difficult time, R3 Development is showing up with care and compassion.
If you’d like to learn more about R3 Development you can visit them at: https://www.r3dev.org/ or follow them on social media @R3Development!
“Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.”
– Brene Brown