eNews
April 2021
THE PRIORITY: CENTERING CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
Deaconess Community,

Two weeks ago, we collectively witnessed the outcome of years of work to build a more inclusive democracy through approval voting, a measure supported by a broad network of our partners. In an historic victory, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones is the first Black woman to serve the residents of the City of St. Louis as mayor. Mayor Jones, who took her oath of office today, has promised to build a St. Louis that centers children and youth. Some commitments from the campaign include:

  • Adequate funding for schools and expansion of Pre-K options
  • Expansion of the College Kids Savings Program
  • Paid Family Leave for city employees
  • Year-round Youth Jobs
  • The creation of a “St. Louis Baby Box” to support mothers, specifically Black women and women of color, and their children
These are real policy changes that align with Deaconess Foundation’s vision of a community that is just for kids. We look forward to Mayor Jones’ leadership and remain committed to investing deeply in civic infrastructure so that youth and child advocates are better positioned to move systems.

One major way that Mayor Jones’ administration will be able to support children and families is through the allocation of more than half a billion dollars that the City of St. Louis will receive through the American Recovery Act. Budgets are moral documents: a written declaration of priorities. We are pleased that Mayor Jones has invited feedback from residents as to how the stimulus funds should be invested.

We encourage you to review Mayor Jonesplan to implement The People’s Agenda, and take a moment to submit your feedback. Together, we can help build a healthier, more equitable St. Louis region for our children.

In closing, I invite you to join in my prayer for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones: May God continue to protect you and order your steps. May you be motivated by your journey here and energized by our ancestors and their sacrifices so that you can “be”. May your unwavering love, compassion and dedication for people and service remain your guide. May the spirit of discernment continue to surround you in all that you do. May your leadership and excellence inspire others to action and light a path for those alongside you and those who come after. May you be motivated by the spirit of kuumba “to do always as much as [you] can, in the way [you] can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than [you] inherited it”. …Amen…

In love and service to our children,

Cheryl D.S. Walker
Interim President and CEO
Deaconess Foundation
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: GOOD JOURNEY DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
Good Journey Development Foundation supports and builds sustainable communities and young leaders who take responsibility for the improvement of our communities and who promote cultural understanding that contributes to the betterment of society.
 
Deaconess Foundation supports Good Journey’s LIVE (Leaning Into Value & Equity) Training through our Responsive Grant portfolio. The initiative provides Black teenagers and young adults with training to use the LIVE organizing model in their collective work to challenge racism and change inequitable systems. Through the program Black youth are trained to LIVE by eradicating internalized racial inferiority, learning to effectively fight external racism, finding and understanding their personal and collective power, making decisions that value the voice of the collective and organizing, mobilizing and advocating for action that creates systems change.
 
Get involved with Good Journey Development Foundation: goodjourney.org.
FROM THE FOUNDATION: CALL ON LEGISLATURE TO FUND MEDICAID EXPANSION 
In Missouri, we are witnessing the further erosion of democratic norms as legislators are refusing to fund the voter-approved expansion of Medicaid that extends health insurance to more than 230,000 Missourians. This comes as the state sits on a surplus of more than $1 billion during a pandemic. After Missourians voted to expand Medicaid last August, Missouri’s House of Representatives is refusing to fund access to healthcare for hundreds of thousands of Missourians, including 36,000 Black Missourians and 98,000 women. Medicaid expansion will improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities among covered populations.
The Missouri Senate will begin debate on the funding proposal this week.

You can join us in demanding legislators honor the will of voters by calling and emailing your senator and asking they:

  1. Support funding for Medicaid expansion in House Bills 10 and 11 AND
  2. Reach out to Senator Hegeman (Senate Appropriations Chairman) in support of this approach and assure him that you will support him on the Senate floor.

The St. Louis Regional Health Commission has prepared a toolkit with additional talking points and resources to help advocates lift our voices in support of Medicaid Expansion.

Deaconess Foundation’s policy agenda calls for universal access to comprehensive healthcare for children and families. Medicaid expansion get us closer to that reality.
PARTNERSHIP & CAPACITY BUILDING:
OUR LEARNING CONTINUES
Last September, we invited the community to join us as accountability partners with the release of our Power Moves Assessment results. The assessment helped to gauge how well Deaconess Foundation build, wields, and shares powering using the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropys toolkit. More than 100 child advocates and peer funders across the country attended the virtual event. Our consulting partners at LaPiana Consulting developed recommendations to further evolve Deaconess Foundation’s grantmaking practices to advance equity and justice following a collaborative, investigative process involving surveys and interviews with our partners, community members and philanthropic colleagues. Our goal is to be transparent at every step of the way in implementing the Power Moves Action Plan.

Since then, our staff team has been activating around the recommendations, and we are clear that yet still our learning continues.

In the coming weeks, as we move the needle in sharing power by strengthening relationships and co-creating with our partners, we will ask our partners to join us in identifying accessible non-grant support offerings. This will inform new approaches to leveraging the resources and relational capital of the Foundation to support our funded partners in building power to advance child well-being in our region. 

For questions about the forthcoming survey or partnership supports Deaconess currently offers please contact Kiesha Davis, Director of Partnership & Capacity Building via email at kieshad@deaconess.org.

Funding Opportunities – Visit our website for a list of funding opportunities for 2021. Our quarterly Responsive Grant cycle has an approaching deadline of April 30, 2021.
AT THE CENTER: NOW OFFERING OPEN-AIR AND VIRTUAL CONVENINGS
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being’s priority has been to continue to advance its mission - building a community action tank for child friendly policies - while also adhering to public health and safety best practices. These guiding principles led to Deaconess Center restricting physical access to indoor convening spaces and office suites while expanding outdoor open-air capacity and virtual convening opportunities.
As of April 1st, Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being has entered a Phase 1 re-entry for co-locators and outdoor open-air convenings. Deaconess Center’s outdoor open-air convening spaces may be reserved for limited gatherings. Face coverings are required of all guests, staff and vendors while on Deaconess Center’s Campus, and physical distancing protocols must be observed. The Center will continue to support partner access to the virtual convening platform through Deaconess’ Zoom Meeting and Webinar programs.

Deaconess Center is only accessible by appointment and will remain closed to indoor convenings.

As collaborative engagement has evolved in the past year, so has the Center’s ability to support our partners. To request a virtual convening, please complete the virtual convening request form. To learn more about or request the use of outdoor open-air convening spaces, email conveningdesk@deaconess.org.
OUR PATH FORWARD: EXECUTIVE SEARCH
In maintaining our commitment to informing and engaging with our community relating to Deaconess Foundation’s nation-wide search for our next chief executive, we continue to hold space for updates in our monthly newsletter.

The application and nomination period for President & CEO remains open. Those submitted by April 23, 2021, will receive priority attention. The ideal candidate will be an inspirational public and organizational leader with a strong track record of experience in grassroots community engagement, organizational capacity building, and leadership development as well as an unwavering commitment to racial justice and economic equity with a focus on children and youth. In its next leader, Deaconess Foundation seeks a President and CEO who is passionate and thoughtful about the unique role advocacy-oriented philanthropy can have in shaping the local, regional, and national conversation about comprehensive child well-being through systems and policy change.

To view the position profile, apply for the position, submit nominations of others or inquire about the search in confidence, please click here.
IN THE NEWS
St. Louis organizations offering grants from fund aiming to improve racial justice

KMOV 4

A local organization is offering money to help fight systemic racism in the Gateway city. 

The Deaconess Foundation near Midtown is one of the organizations releasing grants through a Racial Healing Fund, investing in Black and brown communities to develop programs addressing racial injustices. 

The St. Louis Regional Racial Healing + Justice Fund supports efforts to further the racial justice movement. Grants have already been rewarded to the first recipients but it's not too late to apply.

"The process kicked off last summer and we have just finalized the selection of the first grantees, investing over a $160,000 in community-based initiatives serving Black and brown people throughout our community," Kiesha Davis with the Deaconess Foundation said.  Read more and watch>>>
Missouri's Long Fight Over Voting Rules Is Now Part of A Larger National Battle

Pam Fesller | WABE

[...]For Kayla Reed, executive director of Action St. Louis, it means groups like hers have a lot more work to do. Action St. Louis was formed after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson, by protesters frustrated with the Black community’s lack of political clout.

Reed sees the push to impose new voting restrictions as a backlash against Blacks exercising their rights amid demographic change.

“More children of color are becoming adults of color are become voters of color. They are trending more progressive, more liberal,” she noted.

Her group is trying to make sure these new voters don’t get discouraged. Canvassers go door-to-door to get out the vote and to help people see the link between voting and the issues that matter to them, like affordable housing, health care, workers’ rights and an end to police violence. Read more >>>
WHAT WE'RE READING...
Overcoming Age Segregation by March Freedman & Trent Stamp | Stanford Social Innovation Review | March 2021

Now Emerging in St. Louis: The North Central Corridor by Jack Grone | McPherson | April 2021

PARTNER OPPORTUNITIES AND EVENTS
April 19-24: United Church of Christ Missouri Mid-South Conference 2021 Annual Gathering. Times and events vary each day. Click here to review the event calendar and register.

April 20: United Church of Christ will host Getting Ready, Getting Rooted Part I, 3:30 – 4:30 PM. Click here for more information and to register.

April 21: St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Victim Services Virtual Resource Fair, 1:30 – 3:30 PM. Click here to learn more and register.

April 27: FOCUS St. Louis will host The State of St. Louis – Where We Are, How We Got There and Our Future, 12 – 1 PM. Click here to register.

May 1: Peace United Church of Christ Social Justice Symposium in memory of Marilyn Stavenger, Co-Sponsored by Eden Seminary. 9 AM – 12 PM. Click here to register.

Through August 15: The COVID-19 Special Enrollment Period for Marketplace health insurance is open. If you have children in your household age 18 or younger, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri's Connecting Kids to Coverage program may be able to offer enrollment assistance. Call for information: 314.256.8753

Generate Health is hiring a Manager of Strategic Initiatives. Click here to learn more about the position and how to apply.

Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) is hiring several positions, including Executive Director, Program Support Assistant, OBS Youth Organizer and OBS Racial Justice Organizer. Click here to learn more about each position, and to apply.

Forward Through Ferguson is hiring a Director of Operations. Click here to learn more about the position and how to apply.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Call for Applications is open now through May 5. 15 teams will receive $125,000 in fundsClick here to learn more and apply.

Do you have an event you'd like to see in this Newsletter? Submit it here!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
On March 23, the North Central Plan hosted its fourth virtual community-wide meeting. The meeting included a presentation of the final draft plan and implementation.

Save the date - the North Central Plan Community Celebration will be held Saturday, May 15!
Stay Connected!