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ARCHS' Neighborhood Healing Network Recognized by FOCUS St. Louis for Supporting Crime Victims and Victimized Communities

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ARCHS' Neighborhood Healing Network (NHN) is among a select group of 20 individuals, organizations, and initiatives that will be recognized by FOCUS St. Louis for making a difference at the 25th Annual What’s Right with the Region (WRWR) Awards Celebration.

On May 12 ARCHS' NHN will be honored by FOCUS St. Louis, the region’s premier leadership organization. These honorees were nominated by the public and selected by a committee of local leaders for their impact and service to the community.

ARCHS' NHN is being recognized as an emerging initiative. These honorees are promising new businesses, organizations or initiatives that are already serving as catalysts for change.

Since 2020, ARCHS awarded $1.75 million and provided strategic support to design, launch, and implement NHN. Learn more: http://www.stlarchs.org/60-about/565-archs-awards-750-000-to-increase-and-enhance-services-for-crime-victims-and-victimized-communities.html

This is the fifth time an ARCHS' led initiative has been honored with a WRWR award. Previous awards highlighted ARCHS' Early Childhood, After School for All Partnership, St. Louis Alliance for Reentry, and Kids Vision for Life initiatives.

ARCHS acknowledges the hard work and commitment of NHN's community partners in making this recognition possible:

-Alive & Well Communities
-Better Family Life
-Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis
-Crime Victim Center
-Fathers & Families Support Center
-Mission: St. Louis
-Missouri Department of Social Services
-Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis

The 25th annual WRWR awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 12, 2022, from 5-8 pm at the Sheldon. Learn more: https://www.focus-stl.org/focus-events/whats-right-with-the-region/

ARCHS Awards $750,000 to Increase and Enhance Services for Crime Victims and Victimized Communities

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ARCHS has awarded $750,000 to a network of community partners to increase and enhance support services for crime victims and victimized communities.

Through the Neighborhood Healing Network (NHN), ARCHS leads a multi-faceted collaboration between trusted area organizations known for their support of under resourced families and neighborhoods dealing with violence and trauma/PTSD.

Each partner offers unique expertise and has close relationships with neighborhood residents, businesses, and faith-based organizations. The partners work closely together and use common objective/outcome, training, referral, reporting, communication, and evaluation processes. ARCHS’ funded NHN partners include:

-Alive & Well Communities (Trauma/PTSD training)
-Better Family Life (Crime victim resource hub)
-Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)
-Crime Victim Center (Crime victim support services)
-Fathers & Families Support Center (Crime victim resource hub)
-Mission: St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)
-Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (Crime victim resource hub)

ARCHS launched NHN in August of 2020 with $1 million in funding provided by the Missouri Department of Social Services (Victims of Crime Act/VOCA). Since October 2021, an additional $750,000 in VOCA funding has been provided through ARCHS.

NHN has dramatically grown the availability of support for crime victims (not specific to any one type of crime) from one city-based location to six, placing services directly in the neighborhoods experiencing violence and trauma/post- traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and providing multi-faceted trauma-informed care and services.

Since August 2020, NHN has achieved the following results:

-680 victims of crime served and provided more than 800 acted upon referrals to area crime victim support/social service agencies.
-96% of clients reported a positive experience accessing NHN services and 76% recommended NHN services to others.
-80% increase in referrals to St. Louis’ Crime Victim Center in FY21.
-36 trauma education and support workshops conducted for more than 400 initiative agency staff and community residents.
-5 professional sector trauma trainings held for more than 430 early childhood, faith-based, workforce, and youth development professionals with 99% reported feeling better prepared to effectively work with and support crime victims and 61% indicated they increased their knowledge of trauma.

ARCHS Awards $221,369 to Habitat for Humanity-St. Louis

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This winter ARCHS issued $221,369 to Habitat for Humanity-St. Louis (HFHSL) to support the construction of three new homes, classes for prospective homebuyers, and a pre-apprenticeship training program.

ARCHS secured the funding from the Missouri Department of Social Services. ARCHS’ grant will support the following activities:

-Construct of three single-family homes located in the City of St. Louis. Homes will be built in partnership with volunteers and the homebuyers themselves.

-Create a new “Habitat University,” to provide area families the tools to become homebuyer ready. Through a series of homebuyer readiness courses, HFHSL will reduce the barriers (perceived and real) to homeownership for low-income individuals and families, including those living with a disability.

-Engage young minority adults who have an interest in the construction industry through an inaugural pre-apprentice construction training program to provide access to obtaining and building union careers.

In addition to ARCHS’ $221,369 investment, HFHSL will leverage $600,00 in additional funding and resources to implement the projects with an overall impact exceeding $821,000.

ARCHS Awards $5.8 Million to Expand and Enhance Foster Care Services

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This winter ARCHS issued $5.8 million to Foster Care and Adoptive Care Coalition (FACC) that will support expanded and enhanced foster care services throughout the region. This is a $5 million increase from last year’s grant award.

ARCHS secured the expanded funding from the Missouri Department of Social Services. The State of Missouri made this historic investment on behalf of children in foster care when Governor Mike Parson signed the social services portion of the FY 2022 budget on July 1, 2021.

New and expanded services provided by FACC will include targeted recruitment of African American foster parents to address racial disparities in St. Louis City and County; recruitment and training of specialized homes for children with profound trauma; and geographic service area expansion in Franklin, Warren, and Lincoln counties.

In St. Louis City and County, 70% of children in local foster care are African American, yet only 13% of foster parents are African American. As a result, local African American children are routinely placed in Caucasian homes.

FACC will use the RESPOND model developed by St. Louis African American foster parents in the 1990s that provides a roadmap to ensuring African American children are placed in foster homes that reflect their ethnicity, race, and culture.

FACC is recognized nationally as a driver of innovative programming to address the needs of children in foster care. They are best known for creating Extreme Recruitment® and 30 Days to Family®, programs so effective that they are replicated by other non-profits across the country. Philanthropic support from individuals, corporations and foundations allows FACC to currently serve 1,248 children annually. At any given moment, there are 4,500 children in foster care in the metro region.

More Articles ...

  1. ARCHS' FY 2021 Community Impact Report
  2. ARCHS' FY 2021 Audit
  3. ARCHS Awards $5.5 Million to Enhance Workforce Development Initiatives
  4. Neighborhood Healing Network: Year One Impact