The Whitfield Foundation for Success

A mission with a technical foundation

The Whitfield Foundation for Success is a St. Louis nonprofit connecting young people and underserved communities with creative and technical learning. Its website identifies four program areas: coding, robotics, filmmaking and virtual/augmented reality.

The organization connects its mission to Rev. Owen Whitfield’s 1939 Missouri sharecropper protest. The Foundation presents that history as a continuing commitment to economic opportunity through education and technology.

The challenge: connect the mission, the systems and the experience

A community organization needs more than an online introduction. Families need to understand its programs; partners need to see its purpose; staff and instructors need technology that supports the work on site.

DCG’s role was to connect public-facing communication with the practical systems behind programs and events. This project narrative draws on the existing DCG case study and Jarred Moore’s supplied partnership scope.

A website ecosystem for programs and partnerships

DCG designed, developed and maintained the Foundation’s web presence and supporting program pages. The work brought mission, program descriptions, registration pathways, giving information and media coverage into a connected public-facing experience.

Program pages help explain distinct learning opportunities while keeping them connected to the Foundation’s larger story. Existing source pages include dated program information; this case study documents that work rather than advertising current enrollment.

Network and technical infrastructure

DCG supported the technology environment behind a hands-on learning facility. The partnership connected organizational operations with the technical experiences used by students, staff, instructors and collaborators.

The scope included technical troubleshooting, infrastructure support and the coordination required to keep digital systems useful in a working community space.

AV and live program operations

DCG managed and supported audiovisual needs for Foundation programs, events and activities. The focus was practical delivery: helping people, equipment and content come together reliably when the organization needed them.

This operational work supported the learning and event experience alongside the website and communications work.

Digital strategy and communications

The digital system supported program storytelling, media visibility, community partnerships and fundraising communication. As the Foundation’s work expanded, the website provided a place to connect those activities and make the organization’s public story easier to explore.

Coding, creativity and career exploration

The Foundation’s coding page describes its partnership with Color Coded Kids and a 2023 COHN Academy summer program. That archived program combined application development, music, financial literacy, therapeutic painting and career exploration.

The broader coding program introduces children to programming through interactive instruction and practical creative projects. These are descriptions of documented programs, not a current camp schedule.

Robotics and immersive technology

The Foundation presents LEGO-based robotics as a hands-on route into technical learning and problem-solving. Its site also introduces VR/AR as a way to explore emerging uses of immersive technology.

Together with coding and film, these areas give the organization several entry points into STEAM learning.

Filmmaking from production to premiere

The Foundation’s On the Set Film Camp page describes a supervised production experience for ages 10–18. Participants work alongside professional crews, take responsibility for elements of a short film and share the completed work through a red-carpet premiere and awards program.

The program connects creative expression with exposure to the people, tools and teamwork behind film production.

Community milestones, with attribution

The figures below describe Foundation programs and partnerships reported by the organization or listed in public records. They are not measures of DCG’s website conversion rate, revenue impact or sole responsibility for those outcomes.

The Regional Arts Commission’s 2023 filing lists $10,000 for arts and culture programming; its 2024 filing lists a separate $10,000 youth film camp grant. These dated records provide context for the organization’s continuing work.

What this partnership demonstrates

The DCG contribution connected design, web development, technical support and program operations around one organization’s mission. The project shows how a website can work alongside the infrastructure and people delivering the experience.

The next chapter can build on that foundation with updated program photography, current enrollment information and measured outcomes supplied by the Foundation.

Results & outcomes

• Connected web presence for mission, program information, giving and media coverage.
• Technical and audiovisual support for the organization’s on-site work.
• A public archive linking program storytelling with independent coverage and institutional records.

FOUNDATION MILESTONES

Community impact in context

Historical Foundation-reported milestones and public grant records; these are not DCG performance metrics.

A timeline of the work around the mission

1. November 2020

   A public home for creative and technical learning

   The Foundation records its public opening on November 11, 2020.

   Source ↗

2. December 2020

   Players Alliance community partnership

   The Foundation reports a food distribution partnership; MLB also covered the St. Louis tour stop.

   Source ↗

3. March–May 2021

   Career exploration and scholarship opportunity

   The Foundation describes workforce-readiness programming and a Claflin University scholarship milestone.

   Source ↗

4. November 2022

   Founder story in VoyageSTL

   A profile explores Marlon Whitfield’s path into entrepreneurship and the nonprofit’s STEAM mission.

   Source ↗

5. 2023

   A multidisciplinary summer program

   The archived COHN Academy page connects coding with music, financial literacy, painting and career exploration.

   Source ↗

6. 2023–2024

   Publicly recorded arts and film support

   Regional Arts Commission filings document arts/culture and youth film camp grants.

   Source ↗

Project gallery

Career exploration and scholarship opportunity

EXPLORE THE SOURCES

Programs, media and public records