STRONG WINDS, STRONG ROOTS
One of Deaconess Foundation's greatest strengths is our commitment to deep listening in service to our mission which helps us to pivot to meet community needs. As our world continued to adapt with the shifts of the pandemic in 2021 and 2022 so did our funding strategy to meet the immediate needs of the community we serve. The Foundation provided grants to 77 unique organizations, fiscally sponosored four collaborative initiatives, and launched our Leading Liberation Retreat Series crafted for Black women who are catalyzing change.
With the COVID-19 vaccine becoming widely available to the public, Deaconess Center reopened its doors, implementing phases of re-entry which adhered to public health and safety best practices. As collaborative engagement evolved during the pandemic, so did the Center’s ability to support our partners. We monitored guidelines and adapted convening requirements accordingly while also continued supporting partner access to virtual convening through Deaconess’ Zoom platform.
The Racial Healing + Justice Fund is not a transactional, grantmaking enterprise, but an open invitation for community participation and empowerment for long-lasting change. We invite residents, organizers, advocates, healers, and artists to learn from and encourage each other about the vision we will achieve through the Fund.Rev. Bethany Johnson-Javois, President & CEO
RACIAL HEALING + JUSTICE FUND CRISIS RESPONSE
With the devasting tragedy at Central Visual Performing Arts High School (CVPA) and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience in St. Louis, the RH+JF created a one-time crisis response grant in support of organizations dedicated to providing support and resources to the families, students, educators, staff, and community impacted by the school tragedy.
The RJ+JF is centered around healing the core of our community from racial trauma and changing the conditions of systemic racism that endanger lives. The Crisis Response Fund continues this mission with unrestricted funds that supported the organizations’ who have continuously been dedicated to frontline response to community trauma. The five organizations who received $16,000 each, totaling $80,000, included: The T/BRIC, Black Healers Collective, UnGUN Institute, St. Louis Community Health Worker Coalition, and Freedom Community Center. These organizations promote healing, harm reduction, and action to meaningfully address violence and support community.
The Fund is a participatory grant making process, meaning it is led by a Community Governance Board comprised of grassroots leaders, artists, creatives, and residents of color that identify specific funding priorities and outcomes and distribute invested funds to a combination of midscale and grassroots organizations. Deaconess Foundation serves as the grant administrator for the Fund.
The RH+JF allowed us to do better storytelling and data collection, have better surveying and feedback, and improve how we connect and better understand the impact of our work from the voices of our students and parents. We hired a second full-time staff. We raised over $350,000 by the end of 2021. The fund was a huge piece of that, and the Community Governance Board allowed us to not have such a high barrier for funding.Cynthia Chapple, Black Girls Do STEM
I had no money, I was going broke funding my own operation, then the RH+JF came along. I said, “Please believe in me, I’ve got this awesome vision and I’m willing to work my butt off.” But nobody gives you money if you don't already have money. Where most organizations are making you jump through all these hurdles, and then say no anyway, the RH+JF was like, “come on in, tell us your story.”Janet Lewis, Rustic Roots Sanctuary
To bend toward healing, we must have a timely and deep response...The RH+JF’s crisis response grants made us feel seen, valued, heard, and recognized in a way that was so joyful it got our creative juices flowing about what else we could do.Dr. LJ Punch, Founder & Executive Director of The T/BRIC
Responding to a Community in Crisis
Responsive Grants
Action St. Louis led an effort (in partnership with ArchCity Defenders, Faith for Justice, and Black Men Build) to launch a rapid response infrastructure including wellness check-ins, direct assistance, and an advocacy campaign demanding additional support to those who were impacted. They have raised more than $230,000 for these efforts, supporting hundreds of families in North St. Louis County’s affordable housing footprint.
United Congregations of Metro East raised $24,000 for flood relief efforts in East St. Louis and Centreville in St. Clair County, Illinois. They continued to work with local officials to get an increased federal response for those impacted. Funds were used to purchase gift cards to distribute to impacted families in the Metro East along with donated clothing, food, and cleaning supplies.
Anchoring for Long Lasting Change
In 2022 Deaconess sunset the Just for Kids (J4K) Anchor Institutions Program. With its launch in 2018, five organizations were selected as multi-year partners to strengthen and ground systems change and community organizing efforts for child well-being in the St. Louis region. This was part of Deaconess’ Just for Kids strategy to build a movement for children through public policy and racial equity. The cohort of Just for Kids Anchor Institutions included American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri Foundation, ArchCity Defenders, Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), Metropolitan Congregations United and Missouri Health Care for All.
Through the four-year engagement, Deaconess invested significant financial resources and consultative support to strengthen the organizations’ effectiveness and organizational culture by enhancing their leadership, adaptive, technical and management capacities. In turn, the cohort is now better positioned to contribute to community efforts that build power, shift policy and influence the systems within which children develop and grow.
Key Accomplishments
- Three of four partners successfully navigated planned and unplanned leadership transitions
- One partner transitioned from a fiscal sponsorship to establishing its own financial accounting infrastructure and securing office space
- Three partners expanded staff capacity adding greater breadth and depth to their changemaking efforts
- Deaconess provided over 100 hours of professional development training to leaders, managers and organizing staff in the areas of governance through a racial equity lens, financial forecasting, systems-change-oriented facilitation skills, effective intra-group communications, values-aligned human resources, marketing and public relations, risk management and establishing financial infrastructure for small-to-mid-size organizations.
- Partners adopted new strategic plans to guide their changemaking, evolved their organizational infrastructure through new user-friendly technology platforms and security systems, engaged in deep governance-led reflection and restructured staff teams for increased effectiveness
Deaconess-sponsored CDF Freedom Schools® returned in 2022 following a two-year break during the pandemic, and we were thrilled to once again welcome scholars and their families and caregivers to join us for a summer filled with new experiences, culturally-rich literature, and fun-filled learning. We served more than 100 scholars at four locations (Christ the King UCC, Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being, Peace United Church of Christ, and Saint John's Church (The Beloved Community)) with 18 staff team members dedicated to to making sure this summer was safe, exciting, and filled with learning.
Recognizing the impact of two years of relentless collective trauma, social and emotional wellness activities were woven into lessons for the scholars and workshops for their families and caregivers. Deaconess partnered with Alive & Well Communities to host the workshops which focused on self-care and trauma awareness, giving families the tools to tend to themselves and each other well beyond the summer months.
It was very nice to see a structured and planned out camp. Summer learning loss is real, so it's nice that it was an opportunity for them to stay engaged.Parent of CDF Freedom Schools® Scholar
The City of St. Louis Planning Commission conducted a Public Hearing at Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being and adopted what is now known at the North Central Plan. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones joined residents at a later date for a public celebration to commemorate the completion of the Plan.
The Plan was a multi-month, community-led process to define the vision and strategic plan for the 5,500 residents of the Covenant Blu-Grand Center and Vandeventer neighborhoods. This is now an official City planning document, used as guidance for future development in the neighborhood. This was the first plan submitted to the City of St. Louis after it’s announcement of shifting to an “Equitable Economic Development Framework” towards neighborhood-led efforts.
At the Public Hearing, the members of 27 residents that compose the North Central Plan’s Steering Committee provided details about the engagement and resident-led planning process. Hundreds of residents engaged in community meetings, focus groups, and surveys to help shape the Plan. Aldermen and neighborhood associations within the Plan’s geographic footprint, institutions in the Grand Center Arts District, businesses, schools, medical facilities, social service organizations, and churches participated in and endorsed the Plan.
The Plan encourages residents to remain in place while identifying new ways to revitalize their community and to create opportunities for others to become neighbors. This asset-based, resident-centered approach can be a model for future development.
President,
Christian Hospital
President and CEO,
SIHF Healthcare and CEO, Touchette Regional Hospital
Deaconess Fellow,
The St. Louis American
The St. Louis Affordable Housing Report Card provides a road map for evaluating affordable housing needs and allows advocates to assess whether the region is actually making progress toward meeting our affordable housing needs. This is an accessible, easy-to-use tool for any to leverage work for affordable housing and a more racially equitable region.
Through funding, Deaconess Foundation supported the development of the report card which was commissioned by the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Coalition. The project included public stakeholder meetings, focus groups and one-on-one interviews, working groups, online surveys and assessments, and a virtual public launch event. Funding supported contract services, collaboration meetings, and marketing and communications.
As advocates for children, deeply understanding the issues is key to effectively advocating for policy change on their behalf. Every summer the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® mobilizes child advocates across the country to unite for a day of action to raise awareness about a policy/issue impacting the lives of children and families.
Deaconess Foundation has deeply engaged in the National Day of Social Action (NDSA) through our network of CDF Freedom Schools®. This action showcases the unique brilliance of children. Thousands of scholars across the country set out to raise youth voices during CDF’s 2022 NDSA focused on climate justice.
Engaging children and youth is especially important in defining youth justice from their vantage point. They must not be excluded from visioning and building a more equitable future. We encourage child advocates, parents, guardians, and educators to engage with children on this topic, invite them to reflect on what youth justice means, and commit to furthering the National Day of Social Action’s goals throughout the year by:
Empowering scholars to lead and participate in civic engagement.
Amplifying local issues of youth justice to the broader community.
Educating community about alternatives to carceral youth justice.