FLOURISH Priorities

Community Leadership

In April 2019, FLOURISH established the Community Leaders Cabinet (CLC) to center community voice in initiative decision-making.

The CLC helped provide strategic direction for FLOURISH, identifies racial equity barriers and solutions from direct experience, and engages the broader community in addressing the challenges that families face. These priorities included coordinated quality care, behavioral health, safe sleep, transportation, housing, and home visitation.

FLOURISH Leadership

Our History: FLOURISH Grant making & Network Building

From 2019-2021, FLOURISH facilitated a community-led process through which Missouri Foundation for Health distributed $2.92 million in grants to 105 organizations. Prioritizing community investments was a key strategy of this collective impact effort’s theory of change.

FLOURISH grants were unique in that the community most impacted by racial disparities in infant mortality determined how this funding is allocated. We funded organizations through two grant pools:

Community Mobilization and Innovation ($10,000 – $25,000 grants to grassroots efforts):  In nine cycles ending in August 2021, FLOURISH St. Louis invest $1.3 million more than 60 community groups to promote maternal and infant vitality, provide social support and healing to new and expectant mothers, and/or build community among Black parents in priority zip codes where infant mortality is at its worst. Our goal was to get funds in the hands of community leaders doing grassroots, on-the-ground work to support Black moms and babies – many of the awarded applicants were not registered 501c3 or had not previously received grant funding. The final cycle of funded partners was announced in November 2021. Read about our current partners here.

Aligned Activities ($25,000 – $150,000 for larger organizations): In two rounds of funding – 2019 and 2021 – FLOURISH invested ~$1.6 million in 17 organizations with budget sizes over $500,000 to support the health of Black moms, babies and families. These funds supported new and existing projects that promote policy and systems change that reduce racial disparities in infant mortality. Funded projects addressed one or more of FLOURISH’s priority areas – safe sleep, coordinated quality care, and the social determinant of health, including housing. Read more about the 2021 awardees on our blog.

2021 marked the end of FLOURISH’s grant-making work. Sadly, there are no further funding opportunities at this time.

Continued Network Building: After grant funding was sunset in 2022, FLOURISH stayed in close partnership with several Community Mobilization & Innovation grantees. Based on the feedback of our grantees, we identified a range of capacity building and training interests among grassroots organizations and community leaders that support Black pregnant folks and their infants to thrive. Capacity-building training topics have included systems-thinking, antiracism organizing, organizational development, communications, and fund development.

Partnership with St. Louis Area Diaper Bank: In 2020, FLOURISH began a partnership with the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank to create access to diapers and period supplies for FLOURISH-funded community-based organizations that serve Black families in St. Louis where infant mortality rates are at their highest.

The partnership has allowed FLOURISH to access diapers, pull-ups, and period supplies for its network of grassroots organizations; entities that would not otherwise meet the Diaper Bank’s partnership eligibility. Many of the FLOURISH partner organizations are trusted in their community and led by small, dedicated teams. FLOURISH collects orders from each organization and synthesizes data from all partners to report impact to the Diaper Bank. The partnership is a win-win, creating access to diapers and period supplies for families in the St. Louis region.