Project Impact

Project Overview
A tornado and severe storms swept through St. Louis City and County on May 16, 2025, killing five people, injuring many, and damaging over 5,000 homes and businesses. Staff responded immediately to the most visited hard-hit areas and co-developed crucial support systems, which helped deliver essential needs such as temporary housing, food, water, prescriptions, and clothing. To continue supporting the ongoing recovery, we initiated our Regional Response Team Fund, bridging traditional disaster response organizations with the good work of grassroots organizations to meet the needs of our impacted communities.

Project Impact
Following the tornado’s extensive destruction, working with key partners, the RRT concentrated on three primary areas to support those impacted: equitable coordination, harm reduction, and filling resource gaps.

• We managed an pngoing needs assessment across disaster response groups.
• We provided over 200 hours of on-the-ground staff to support grassroots hubs on the north side within 24 hours. During the earliest hours of the crisis, we purchased supplies, made donations, and provided direct resources. Our efforts filled the gap until traditional funders and emergency response teams were able to mobilize.
• We utilized Airtable data platform to enhance collaboration, accelerate workflows, and drive alignment, to help partners triage over 7,200 households with 9,000 volunteers.
• We shared interpretation services through a partnership with LifeWise STL’s language access phone line.
• Northside Resilience Fund administrative support.

Project Overview
Across Illinois, families receive crucial support from the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), a state-funded subsidy that reduces child care and after-school costs for eligible families. In Madison and St. Clair counties, these programs are led by Brightpoint, a child and family service organization whose services include child welfare, early care and education, family support, and mental health. 

While CCAP provides individualized support that centers child and family needs, access barriers remain. The most persistent challenges impact unhoused families, families involved in child welfare, and families with a parent or guardian deployed in active duty military. Brightpoint has developed internal practices to be more responsive and reduce barriers; however, staff capacity and other constraints have limited impact. To address these challenges, Brightpoint and RRT have convened 11 partners across government, military, nonprofit, and community agencies to identify strategies for better serving these families. Through a three-session workshop series and prototyping solutions, Brightpoint staff and partners have envisioned a strong navigator network where families, community champions, and staff are working together to improve awareness of and engagement in CCAP.

Project Overview
Chronically unhoused individuals need consistent cross-sector housing and mental health services support, but current service systems rarely meet these needs. Many lack access to adaptable, appropriate services. While providers collaborate to fill these gaps with culturally appropriate offerings that demonstrate regional success, funding constraints, organizational red tape, regulatory requirements, and other limitations stifle sustainability.

Project Impact
Gateway Housing First tackled this challenge head-on by bringing essential collaborators to the table. Through a dynamic three-session workshop series, we guided participants through a journey of reflection, examining current partnerships, uncovering potential turning points for systems change, and crafting practical approaches to strengthen collaboration with one clear goal: making a meaningful difference in our community.

Partner Recommendations: Workforce Development 

1. Develop accountability measures for the center and prioritize client wellbeing.
2. Co-create cross-sector training that leverages frontline skills and insights to better meet the needs of individuals’ acuity.
3. Increase opportunities for mentorship and shared supervision with cross-sector leaders in proximity to the work. 
4. Revise compensation structures, especially for direct service staff.

Collaborative & Partner Health

1. Establish grounding principles that build shared accountability among all members.
2. Develop equitable processes for identifying formal and informal responsibilities of all members including but not limited to collaborative-specific roles like co-chairs.
3. Establish and regularly revisit a shared vision and values, and clarify how each member’s role contributes to achieving these goals.
4. Assess needed support for each project or initiative and strategically invest in dedicated capacity that doesn’t overburden one organization or role.

Funding Risk & Sustainability

1. Strategically distribute risk across the collaborative rather than assign it to one or two partners. 
2. Incorporate community need into risk assessments by emphasizing the role that regional impact plays in addressing risk factors long term.
3. Educate funders about and encourage investment in right-fit services.
4. Adjust fee structures to more accurately reflect cost for providing right-fit services. 
5. Explore add-on incentives that can sustain providers serving clients with varied needs.
   

Project Overview
St. Louis has a rich history of regional growth and prosperity driven directly by immigrants, refugees, and asylees. However, immigrant service providers have long emphasized the need for housing solutions that welcome immigrants, beginning with accessible short-term shelter. 

To meet this need, Aa coalition of 17 organizations united to support the need for short-term immigrant housing in Winter 2024-2025. The group of community advocates and service providers had a vision of a comprehensive set of services for unhoused and underhoused immigrant, refugee, and asylee individuals and families. Together, the founding members established an innovative pilot project, which would establish a shelter for migrant families on a dedicated floor of an existing shelter.

Objectives

• Meet needs for short-term shelter in immigrant communities.
• Develop & refine culturally competent shelter resources.
• Integrate with existing housing systems to support a continuum of care.
• Build programmatic pathways to permanent housing.

Impact
The RRT contributed to this work by facilitating collaborative program development, service delivery, sustainability planning, and evaluation during 25+ weekly coalition meetings, small group working sessions, and one-on-ones. This effort, which mobilized over 750+ volunteer hours, resulted in the project sheltering 14 families, comprising 37 people (28 adults and 9 children). Families averaged a two-week stay over these two months, approximately 200 nights.

Project Overview
We were called upon to support a collaborative response to a major housing displacement crisis. When pipes burst and flooded the 19-story Heritage House during January 2024’s record-breaking cold, RRT sprang into action. This wasn’t just any building; it was home to 170 low-income residents in downtown St. Louis, who suddenly faced homelessness. Our team orchestrated a successful collaborative effort that kept residents housed while navigating a complex array of social services, ensuring ongoing case management, and securing housing at an unprecedented scale and speed. 

Project Impact
We supported 160 residents with alternative housing while our partner organizations made over 1,160 contacts with residents through wellness visits and case management calls.

Project Overview
In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we led collaborative efforts and continued with a range of “Community Campaigns” to support residents in our region. These campaigns aimed to identify and prioritize the critical needs of vulnerable populations while efficiently and effectively deploying essential resources. We communicated needs and opportunities to funders, decision-makers, and the broader community to garner increased support.

Project Impact
Our Community Campaigns offered much-needed support services while building long-term infrastructure and creating intentional partnerships among local governments, nonprofits, and diverse communities. Support services included:

• Homebound Initiative: Connected homebound older adults and people with disabilities to critical support services.
• Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) Campaign: Gathered and equitably distributed PPE to frontline workers, particularly in the human services and childcare sectors.
• Unhoused Campaign: Partnered with medical providers, shelters, and other stakeholders to advocate for pandemic-responsive housing and support services, particularly in the city of St. Louis.
• Eviction Prevention Campaign: Conducted eviction prevention outreach and coordination in partnership with the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County.
• Vaccine Education Campaign: Secured more than $2.4 million funding for grants focused on vaccine outreach materials in partnership with Washington University Health Communication Research Lab.
  

Project Overview
In the St. Louis region, there is an opportunity to establish a strong eviction prevention infrastructure. The RRT aims to coordinate resources by developing data-driven community collaboration to create a centralized response to addressing rental, utility, and mortgage assistance needs. To ensure this support is as effective as possible and to develop a sustainable eviction prevention infrastructure, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the existing eviction prevention ecosystem in the region.

Project Impact
By developing strategic partnerships across various sectors, theRRT can effectively support community organizations and government agencies in updating their processes, requirements, and relationships related to eviction prevention.