Our National Connections
Learning best practices from other cities through FLOURISH MORE and BUILD Health Challenge.
FLOURISH MORE
FLOURISH St. Louis has been selected to participate in a special program funded by CityMatCH’s Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes. This three-year partnership, which began in 2016, brings together city and county health departments, community leaders, and other health organizations in seven different regions across the country to discuss trends in urban health issues, and promote racial equity when developing strategies and interventions.
Here in St. Louis, representatives from For the Sake of All, United Way, St. Louis City and County health departments, and 11 community leaders joined together as a group called FLOURISH MORE. This group will develop some immediate solutions and long-term strategies to address urban health and housing issues that can impact the health of pregnant moms and babies. For example, broken heat and rodent infestations can create serious health risks for babies. Many issues like this often go ignored, so FLOURISH MORE will be focusing on raising awareness of housing concerns (such as the mice infestation at the Clinton Peabody public housing complex) and identifying potential solutions that will help address urban health issues and reduce infant mortality rates.
To date, FLOURISH MORE has had the opportunity to collaborate with other regions trying to address equity and birth outcomes, including:
- Davidson County, Tennessee
- Kent County, Michigan
- Ramsey County, Minnesota
- Solano County, California
- Louisiana Region 7
- Areas of New Mexico
As FLOURISH MORE learns best practices from our partner cities, we will look to the St. Louis community to help implement urban health solutions that make long-term improvements for moms and babies. If you are interested in learning more about this work, contact us at info@flourishstlouis.org.
BUILD Health Challenge
In 2017, FLOURISH St. Louis was selected to participate in the BUILD Health Challenge, a national program that puts multi-sector community partnerships at the foundation of improving health for everyone. Our project focused on improving maternal and infant health outcomes by targeting transportation access for pregnant women and new parents in two contiguous zip codes – 63106 and 63107 – in the City of St. Louis.
BUILD stands for Bold, Upstream, Integrated, Local, and Data-Driven ideas to improve the health of its residents. The program emphasized cross-sector collaboration among local nonprofit organizations, hospitals, and public health departments to address upstream conditions that create opportunities for better health. BUILD selected FLOURISH St. Louis because of its Bold, Upstream, Integrated, Local, and Data-Driven ideas to improve the health of its residents.
Generate Health, the City of St. Louis Department of Health, SSM Health, St. Louis Children’s and Barnes Jewish Hospitals, Mercy Hospital St. Louis, and Project LAUNCH/Vision for Children at Risk partnered on this project. Matching and in-kind funds from the three hospitals, combined with BUILD’s $250,000 two-year grant, further extended the partnership’s capacity to help reduce infant mortality in 63106 and 63107.
Data Across Sectors for Health Mentorship Program
Generate Health is one of forty-two community-based organizations paired with seven national partners to bolster local community capacity and improve health through multi-sector data sharing.
As a DASH Mentee, we are connecting with communities around the country through a peer-to-peer learning network. Together, we are building local capacity to systematically combine health data with data from other sectors like education, social services, and housing. The goal is to acquire a more complete picture of the factors that influence health.
