In the final round of Aligned Activities funding, FLOURISH will distribute over $1.1 Million to twelve nonprofits in the St. Louis region to support new and existing projects that address equitable outcomes for Black families in St. Louis through coordinated quality care, safe sleep, and housing. The grantees were selected by FLOURISH’s community review committee.
The committee selected the following organizations to implement projects that will improve maternal and infant health:
- American Lung Association in Missouri: The Clean Air at Home for Black Moms and Babies program will increase the number of Black moms and families who feel empowered and confident to advocate for healthy housing for their families and improve the indoor air quality for Black moms who are pregnant or who have young children.
- Arch City Defenders: The Housing Justice Project will support Black women, mothers, and families experiencing a housing crisis, reduce evictions and homelessness, advance tenants’ rights, and advocate for policies and practices that keep low-income families in their homes. Most importantly, the project will address the roots of homelessness and housing insecurity for low-income Black mothers.
- Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation: A Cribs for Change Collaboration will use existing partnerships to ensure families of Black babies living within FLOURISH’s 16 high impact zip codes have access to education and safe sleep environments to reduce sudden unexpected infant death due to unsafe sleep practices.
- Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis: Will conduct affordable housing advocacy with community-based nonprofits and housing advocates for stronger Affordable Housing Trust Funds in St. Louis City and County.
- Legal Services of Eastern Missouri: A Family Property Project will use estate planning and title clearance legal services to increase safe and stable homeownership for Black families, thereby facilitating better health outcomes for Black mothers and their children.
- Midtown Neighborhood Opportunities Corporation: Coordinated Quality Care for New Moms and Safe Sleep Programs will provide new moms with doula services that empower them in healthcare settings and connect them to therapists who specialize in post-partum depression, as well as offer Safe Sleep workshops to reduce their babies’ risk of SUID.
- Northside Community Housing Inc.: is dedicated to providing the opportunity of homeownership to a community that has been plagued by inequitable policies, such as racial covenants and redlining, to minorities that are currently living in proposed area.
- Parents as Teachers National Center: Will develop and implement policies and procedures for embedding the services of doulas into the evidence-based parenting education and family well-being support services they provide primarily African-American pregnant and parenting people in St. Louis City and part of North St. Louis County through Show Me Strong Families (SMSF) Parents as Teachers (PAT).
- Park Central Development Corporation: Will provide holistic alternative resources for mothers and their children.
- Saint Louis University: The MOM (Making Optimal Mental Healthcare) program will offer free, culturally-affirming mental healthcare to Black women and their families during pregnancy and postpartum through a coordinated effort from clinics providing women’s healthcare and psychological services.
- St. Louis Children’s Hospital Heart Center: To address infant mortality and improve pregnancy outcomes for Black pregnant people and infants with heart disease, Community Health Workers will build trust between community members and St. Louis Children’s Hospital Heart Center.
- We Rise Up 4 Kids: Rise Up 4 Young Black Moms’ Mental Health will provide young moms from low-income communities with the highest infant mortality rates and trauma with access to quality, comprehensive mental health care through the provision of training for professionals across sectors, covering the cost of mental health care for the uninsured and underinsured, and connections to sustainable resources and services so that they have a stable medical home.
FLOURISH has been proud to invest a total of $1.5 million in coordinated quality care, safe sleep, housing, and transportation projects in the St. Louis region. This newest cohort of grantees will make a tangible difference in the health of Black parents and children in our community.
