3/29/2019 News Release
                                                                                  March 29, 2019

St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund Announces
2020-2022 Core Funding Cycle
Continuing its commitment to improve outcomes for children and youth, on March 29 St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund (CSF) released its latest Request for Proposals (RFP) for the 2020-2022 Core funding cycle. This funding cycle, CSF will invest up to $107 million into programming to ensure children and youth have the support and services they need to achieve their potential.

Launched in 2010, this is CSF’s seventh Core funding cycle, having invested over $300 million into local nonprofits to provide mental health and substance use prevention, intervention, and treatment services.

“We have a tremendous asset in St. Louis County through CSF. We are able to use local dollars to address issues our children and youth are facing such as bullying, homelessness, trauma and toxic stress, and alcohol and drug misuse,” CSF’s Director of Programs Paulette Foerster said. “Through area nonprofits, we’re providing a range of services for our residents including school-based prevention programming, counseling, shelter and psychiatric services.”

Over the past year under the leadership of Emily Koenig, interim executive director, CSF has made many organizational changes and improvements to the allocation process to enhance operations both internally and for the nonprofits providing services throughout the County.

Last fall, CSF’s board voted to extend the Core funding cycle from two years to three years and to align with the school year to ensure continuity of services to students. These changes will allow CSF the time to build a stronger partnership with funded agencies and collaboratively work with both the agencies and community partners to show impact in the community.

 “Since I became board chair in 2018, we’ve analyzed what we’re currently doing and what we need to be doing in order to achieve the impact we want for the children in our community,” Board Chair Patti Kelley said. “The changes we’re making will allow us the opportunity to explore behavioral health issues at a systemic level, make strategic investments that achieve desirable outcomes, and communicate the impact of our investments.”

This cycle, CSF has ramped up outreach efforts to attract a wide array of service providers with diverse backgrounds serving a range of needs to increase access and equip children and youth with the tools they need to be successful. 

“At CSF, we believe transformative ideas and programming are as likely to come from major universities in the region as they are from community organizations, from organizations with decades of experience and those starting out,” Interim Executive Director Emily Koenig said. “We want to work with a broad spectrum of service providers to ensure each child receives the right services at the right time.”

CSF is hosting three pre-application meetings on April 9 and April 11 for agencies interested in applying for funding. You can register for the events on CSF’s website, www.keepingkidsfirst.org .