Celebrate with ARCHS on the huge success of the third open enrollment period for Missouri Marketplace Health Insurance! ARCHS appreciates the hard work and dedication of so many who helped us raise awareness. Thanks to ARCHS' grant from Missouri Foundation for Health, ARCHS distributed 25,000 educational brochures to community-based organizations and posted media stories reaching several thousand readers.

Nationally, 12.7 million consumers enrolled in health insurance through the Marketplace during this past open enrollment period, and in Missouri 290,201 people gained coverage. Those numbers represent real lives that have been improved through increased access to health care services - with more people gaining coverage this time than in any past open enrollment period.

Even though the hustle and bustle of the third open enrollment period has come to a close, there's more work ahead to lower Missouri's uninsured rate to less than 5 percent. Still need health insurance? The Special Enrollment Period provides a unique opportunity for individuals and their family to sign up for coverage in the Missouri Marketplace. Here are some of the qualifying life events:

• Getting married
• Birth or adoption of a baby
• Becoming a citizen
• Getting divorced
• Losing employer/job
• Permanent move
• Turning 26
• Losing Medicaid or CHIP

Please refer your organization's clients to these resources to get free in-person help, or to sign up:

www.covermissouri.org or call 1-800-466-3213

March  is Women's History Month. ARCHS encourages its educational partners to promote the important role women have played throughout St. Louis' 250 year history.

Use this event to discuss the important contribution females have made in advancing the arts, business, education, entertainment, publishing, sports, and many other fields of endeavor.

Download ARCHS' Women's History Month Idea Guide

The Crisis Within, a February 21, 2016 special report of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, describes how toxic stress and trauma endanger our children and families, particularly in communities plagued by crime and poverty. And the story offers local resources and strategies for tackling stress.

ARCHS implements 18 education and social services programs lessening the burden that adverse events and stress place on reaching our full potential in St. Louis. Whether as an individual, or part of a family or community, none of us escapes stress. Yet too many St. Louis residents encounter more than their fair share.

That's why ARCHS focuses its programming for St. Louis' most vulnerable. From before birth continuing through career, ARCHS provides trauma-informed solutions to cope with (and even prevent) toxic stress in the St. Louis area.

ARCHS convenes partnership programs that annually remediates stress for more than 90,000 people, such as:

• home visits to strengthen families with young children
• parent coaching
• support services for families with special needs children
• early childhood and after school programs
• school-based medical and mental health services
• youth mentoring/development programs
• summer food benefits
• job training programs
• prisoner reentry programs
• health literacy/health insurance
• financial literacy/retirement savings
• reliable data and research on behalf of children

ARCHS continually explores new ways to improve the lives of the children and families we serve. Let us know if you have ideas or new program opportunities.

Graphic courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ARCHS participated in a January 27, 2016 White House Conversation on Child Hunger. ARCHS' Wendell E. Kimbrough and Les Johnson provided an overview of Missouri's highly successful "Summer EBT for Children" program in partnership with the state of Missouri, Missouri Family and Community Trust (FACT), Local Investment Commission (LINC), and school districts in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Mississippi County.

Since 2012, ARCHS' program has provided more than 14,400 area students with enhanced summer food benefits. At the event, the White House announced a series of new federal investments in preventing child hunger.

ARCHS' White House presentation (23:40 and 43:30)

White House announcement

ARCHS' summer EBT program summary