Engage the Faith Community in the Racial Equity Mission
Faith communities and authorized faith leaders are called to directly engage in networks and tables of policy discussion across the region to shape how we work together and inform the conversation directly. Develop new and provide existing assets to the region with a multi-faith set of resources for racial equity and reconciliation informed by various…
Train Moderators
FCC licensees with online comments sections must employ trained moderators or close comments.
Provide Trauma-Informed & Anti-Bias Training for Media
Develop statewide training, best practices and accountability measures for broadcasters, print and digital media outlets in the areas of Trauma Informed Newsrooms (Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma), bias and systemic context with specific focus on impoverished communities, people of color, and boys and men of color. (Race Forward #MediaOnFerguson brief).
Create Neutral Space
Create dedicated physical space that is considered neutral for the primary purpose of learning, interaction and training, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and facilities.
Design an Accreditation System
Design an accreditation system in partnership with national organizations (e.g. Winter Institute, Race Forward, Danforth Project for Education Equity).
Create Incentive Programs
Create incentive programs for corporations, organizations, institutions, media, and governmental agencies to participate in accredited diversity and inclusion programming and initiatives that support learning and dialogue.
Support and Encourage Creative Spaces
Support and encourage spaces with established community presence that think creatively about use of space and community relationships to welcome and support casual and professional learning, connecting and dialogue (e.g. City Garden Montessori and other places who are not primarily spaces for this work but will become an important partner in this dialogue).
Create a Clearinghouse
Create a clearinghouse for professionally facilitated opportunities at various levels (school, inter/intra-race, private, etc.)
Create a Rating System
Create a Better Business Bureau-like consumer facing rating system as a regional benchmark for diversity. The purpose is to provide public accountability, consumer knowledge and goal-setting for regional institutions, organizations and corporations.
Disaggregate Data
Require data coming from public institutions to be disaggregated by race, gender, and ethnicity when reporting regional, local, public statistics to identify trends in disparities.
Establish Regional Baselines
Establish a regional baseline on attitudes, experiences and perception regarding diversity and inclusion for use in consistently measuring regional progress at regular intervals. (e.g. Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State.)
Create Region-Wide Benchmarking Process
Complete a collective region-wide benchmarking process designed to publicly acknowledge challenges focused on awareness, accountability and healing. (Suggested model Jackson/Hardiman Social Identity Development.)
Ensure Language Access
Ensure language access for non-English speakers through enforcement and expansion of Missouri Revised Statute 476.803.1 for courts-related services and addition of statute to include all emergency services, including law-enforcement departments and ambulance services. Consider revision of statute to disallow parents to serve as first-option translators for children in court.
Utilize Shared Guidelines
Utilize a shared set of guidelines, language, and benchmarks for philanthropic organizations addressing key causes of systemic inequality.
Create a 25-year Managed Fund
Create a 25-year managed fund to solely support regional racial equity infrastructure for all sectors. Funding for racial equity capacity, needs and training assessment, analysis, implementation, impact, sustained strategies and accountability.
Broadly Apply a Racial Equity Framework
Intentionally apply a racial equity framework to existing and new regional policies, initiatives, programs and projects in order to address and eliminate existing disparities for racial and ethnic populations. The following focus questions to be included at a minimum: Whom does this benefit? Does this differentially impact racial and ethnic groups? What is missing that…
Expand Internship and Apprenticeship Opportunities
Expand internships and apprentice opportunities for eligible high school and college students.
Reform School Discipline Policies
Reform policies and practices that disproportionately impact youth of color and students with disabilities and further compromise their ability to thrive and succeed: Reform rules pertaining to school disproportionality of behavior referrals, suspensions, expulsions, special education, advanced courses, etc. and ensure that multi- tiered levels of support are in place to prevent disproportionality and systems…
Ensure College Counseling for All High School Students
Ensure all high school students have quality college counseling. Not every high school in Missouri has a dedicated college counselor; many times caseload size prohibits meaningful guidance; guidance counseling certification should be reviewed.
Ensure Equitable Access to Rigorous High School Courses
Ensure all high school students have access to rigorous courses with quality instruction. Students need to be exposed to high-level courses in high school to garner the academic skills necessary to enter and succeed in college.
Early Childhood Education
Ensure sufficient early childhood development and education programs to meet the demand and align all efforts around a high-quality model that produces measurable child outcomes: Birth to 3 years of age: Scale-up and integrate, for the region’s most needy children and families, evidence-based early childhood programs for a continuum of care, including but not limited…
End Shame and Stigma
Develop a media campaign to minimize stigma/shame as a singular issue: A vast number of issues (hunger, mental health/illness, homelessness, obesity, poverty, incarceration, etc.) are compounded by the presence of stigma and shame. Showcase the fact that we all suffer from some stigma/shame and through these shared stories and conversations we can become more compassionate,…
Develop School Leader and Teacher Support Infrastructure
Create a school leader and teacher cohort model that promotes well-being by building connectivity and support among peers, facilitates lifelong learning and idea exchange and a ensures a personal experience within an environment of trust, respect and confidentiality Model: Young Presidents Organization (YPO)
Ensure Employer-Educator Collaborations Build a Love of Learning
Ensure all efforts and models designed to align K-12, higher education and workforce development support the social and emotional development of children, youth and young adults and broadly build life-long skills and a love of learning.
School Accreditation System
Revise the Missouri accreditation system (MSIP5). Ensure that the process of revision incorporates the following: Inclusive Participation – ensure that the revision team includes broad representation including: K-12 – district superintendents, principals and teachers Higher education representatives Parents and students Business, philanthropic and community social support representatives Lens Assessment – ensure that the new system…
Negotiate Reasonable and Equitable Transfer Rates
Negotiate a reasonable and equitable transfer rate between local school districts. Without an established tuition cap, unaccredited school districts are at great risk of going bankrupt and further compromising their remaining students’ hope for a quality education.
Amend Role of Assistance Teams
Ensure members of assistance teams are qualified, based on their past performance in failing districts with similar circumstances and omit or change language to “may” consider the recommendations of the assistance teams.
Limit Criteria for Denial of Transfers
No student shall be denied a transfer based on criteria that does not exclude him/her from attending a school in their resident district. Only students who have committed a safe schools violation be ineligible for transfer.
Adopt the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation (VICC) Calculation
Adopt the Voluntary Inter-District Choice Corporation (VICC) calculation of $7,200 as the maximum rate.
Hold Schools Accepting Transfer Students Accountable
Mandate accountability. If districts are going to accept students and funds, they must accept accountability.
Identify Convenient Transfer Schools
Prioritize accredited schools in same district when transferring students from unaccredited schools.
Create Annual Reporting Process
Create a data driven and annual reporting process capable of accounting for how regional services are provided and how dollars are spent to meet the needs of children and youth. Model: Children’s Agenda, Rochester, New York
Measuring Child Well-Being
Advance science around measuring child well-being; adopt new coordinated, scalable models for collecting data, in particular subjective well-being.
Create School-Based Early Warning Systems
Invest, at the school level, in a quarterly, early warning and coordinated community response system capable of tracking and responding to all students’ successes and challenges.
Increase Health Insurance Coverage and Access
Increase insurance coverage and access for everyone: Enroll more people in the Affordable Care Act marketplace Expand Medicaid Ensure the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is reauthorized so school-based health centers can use this as one source of funding care. To ease enrollment into CHIP, implement “presumptive eligibility” into the school-based health center settings for all children…
Establish School-Based Health Centers & Trauma-Informed Schools
Improve childhood physical and mental health: Establish School Based Health Centers: The creation of comprehensive school based health centers in the region should include access to mental health, case management and reproductive health. These centers keep kids in school (both by preventing illness and addressing behavioral health issues that lead to suspension and expulsion), in…
Support Post-Secondary Access for DACA Students
Support postsecondary access and affordability for residents who are approved under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals): Allow state-supported higher education institutions to charge DACA students resident tuition rates vs. non-resident or international tuition rates. Ensure DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students are eligible for all public financial aid and public benefits afforded to…
Review All State Scholarship Programs
Review state scholarship programs
Expand the Access Missouri Program
Expand Access Missouri: Increase the total budget for Missouri’s need-based scholarship program to at least the FY2009 budget amount of $92 million. Since 2009, Missouri has decreased its investment in Access Missouri, resulting in student aid awards that barely meet statutory minimums. Individual awards fall far short of meeting student financial need.
Coordinate Support Efforts
Develop a shared vision, community scorecard and system for coordinating important but fragmented efforts while valuing diversity, inclusion and transparency. Promoted model: Ready by 21
Adopt a Self-Sufficiency Model
Integrate a “self-sufficiency model” into existing services, systems and organizations that are serving the most needy children and families. A two-generational approach is essential for ensuring change, and sequencing services and supports is fundamental to building a platform capable of supporting a stable family and thriving youth. Model: Live Work Thrive
Encourage Paid Time Off for Volunteering
Promote “volunteer paid time off” for employees, including but not limited to expert giving, mentoring and tutoring.
Review the Missouri Family Support Division
Create a Missouri Blue Ribbon Commission (via Executive Order) to conduct a thorough and inclusive review of the current operating model and outcomes of Missouri Family Support Division
Create a Discounted Youth Transit Pass
Create a youth discounted public transit metro pass (through age 25) to get to services and jobs, regardless of whether or not the youth is in school or employed.
End Hunger for Children and Families
End hunger for children and families: Create policies and procedures that are client- centric. (i.e. Individuals employed in shift work jobs cannot easily answer telephone calls. Failure to answer call forces individual to go to the “back of the line”). Support and advocate for the expansion of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Women,…
Build Safe Neighborhoods
Support sustained, citizen-led efforts to develop safe neighborhoods, particularly the efforts of parents and families impacted by violence, and clergy working to build community and keep watch. Support should include, but not be limited to, planning, coaching, funding and service- provider coordination
Deliver Trauma-Informed Care
Design hospital-community partnerships to help heal young people impacted by violence with case management, mentorship and evidenced based trauma interventions
Create an Education Design and Financing Task Force
The role of the task force is to study the current education landscape in the St. Louis region as it relates to structure, financing and support/opportunity systems including Saint Louis Public Schools, school districts in Saint Louis County and the Special School District. The task force’s charge is to design a system where all children…
Fund Organizational Capacity and Client Outcomes
Encourage the funding community to invest in the attainment of outcomes and in capacity building versus payment for individual transactions (i.e. number of youth interviewed ). Our current and future regional issues are complex and require innovation, coordination, and collaboration.
Create an Innovative Education Hub
Create an “innovative education center/hub” capable of building an inclusive, collaborative, and multi-disciplined education environment focused on leading our region into the 21st Century from early childhood to post-secondary. All efforts should be coordinated and represented by a broad and diverse constituency including but not limited to school district leaders representing low income districts, engaged…
Create the Spirit of Missouri Fund
Create the Spirit of Missouri Fund Invest in a range of innovations that have a strong potential to impact at a large scale our state’s most vexing challenges. Broadly define innovation as any solution that has the potential to address an important issue, including new business problems, technology, new delivery systems, public policy and/or behavioral…
Collect Municipal Court Debts Like Civil Debts
Municipal courts shall collect debts in a manner consistent with other civil debts.
Identify Job Training Best Practices
A designated task force appointed by the Department of Economic Development’s Workforce Development Division shall identify critical attributes of job training programs that shall be used: As criteria for guiding current job training organizations; As standards to evaluate the success of those programs; and As criteria for awarding priority grant funding from local foundations and…
Implement Work-Based Learning Opportunities
Industry organizations (e.g., employers, unions) shall consider more work-based learning and apprenticeship opportunities as a workforce training approach. (e.g., LaunchCode and Building Union Diversity (BUD)).
Preferentially Fund Job Training Programs that Show Impact
Funding for job training programs throughout the state shall be prioritized for those programs that successfully serve, place, and retain job seekers as measured by dedicated performance metrics.
Modify Procurements Systems to Encourage Hiring of Targeted Employees
Amend the existing state and local contract procurement scoring systems to create a preference for employers offering new employment for targeted employees (e.g.,the hard-to-employ).
Expand Funding for Job Training and Wage Support Programs
Expand funding for and access to job training and wage support programs for new hires (e.g., St. Louis Agency of Training and Employment [SLATE’s] program using Department of Labor [DOL] funds).
Create Pathways for Lower Skilled Employees
Modify incentive programs for employers to prioritize those that have internal career ladders creating clear pathways to higher skilled jobs for lower skilled employees.
Assess Tax Incentives to Ensure that They Serve the Intended Population
State and local incentives shall be analyzed to ensure that they are ultimately serving the intended target population. The recommendations of the Tax Credit Accountability Review Commission (a body of private citizens selected to make recommendations to the legislature) shall be reviewed and given consideration.
Launch Best Practice-Driven Job Training Programs
Expand and incentivize transitional job programs containing confirmed critical attributes to be identified by a designated task force appointed by the Department of Economic Development’s Workforce Development Division to serve a greater number of employment-ready individuals including those who are TANF recipients, long-term unemployed, and at-risk youth.
Teach Financial Literacy to Section 8 Housing Beneficiaries
Provide Section 8 housing beneficiaries with financial literacy and technical assistance in asset-building so that they can become permanent homeowners.
Build a Poverty-to-Professional Model for Youth Serving Organizations
Missouri youth-serving organizations shall advocate for the development of a model that empowers low-income young adults to go from poverty to professional careers in an accelerated timeframe.
Evaluate Job Training Success and Award Funding Accordingly
Incorporate the number of disconnected youth enrolled and graduated from job training programs with significant success in job placement and earnings as a metric in the performance evaluations of youth-serving organizations receiving public dollars and grant funds from local foundations in the St. Louis metropolitan region.
Prioritize Tax Incentives for Youth-Serving Job Programs
Modify existing tax credit contribution programs to prioritize paid stipend programs aimed at connecting at-risk, disconnected youth (those under the age of 25 who are neither employed nor in school but who are ready for employment) with internships, apprenticeships, or mentoring programs with private business.
Expand the City of St. Louis Housing Trust Fund
The City of St. Louis should lift the $5 million cap on its Housing Trust Fund
Expand the Statewide Housing Trust Fund
Expand the statewide Missouri housing trust fund (HTF) program by doubling the current real estate transaction filing fee
Align Funding to Build Capacity of CDCs
Engage area funders, non-profits, financial institutions, and private sector entities to align resources and provide financial support to encourage collaboration between community development corporations (CDCs) and build their capacity.
Encourage CDCs to Collaborate or Merge
In order to improve their professional skills and capacities, community development corporations (CDC) shall collaborate or, when possible and appropriate, merge.
Prioritize Transit-Oriented Development
Prioritize mixed-use, mixed-income, right sized development near rail transit through changes in zoning, financial incentives for developers, and transit benefits for residents of developments. Prioritize developments for the underserved in the North and South St. Louis region.
Institute Fair Housing Protections
Create fair housing protections that prohibit discrimination by source of income for the entire State of Missouri.
Develop and Implement an Economic Inclusion Infrastructure
Create and implement an economic inclusion infrastructure in industries that supports business’ growth strategies and aids them in attaining their profit goals by promoting workforce inclusion (e.g. Construction, Manufacturing, and others).
Launch an Employer Grading System for Economic Mobility
Endorse the Better Business Bureau-like consumer – facing rating system proposed by the Commission in the area of Racial Equity and Reconciliation and add to it economic mobility factors that should be monitored (e.g. employability, opportunity for promotion, promotability, presence of career path, income).
Implement a Statewide M/WBE Program
Establish a statewide program for Minority/Women’s Business Enterprises (M/WBEs) with outcomes measures that incorporate capacity building, mentoring, and education with respect to the state and local procurement system.
Encouraging Use of Public Transportation
Incentivize residents of St. Louis City and County to try transit by: Implementing a ridership program that educates individuals on how to use the system for work or education trips and demonstrates the possibilities for job access and educational trips and potential personal cost savings; Improving bus tracking to enhance the ease with which bus…
Identify Priority Transportation Projects for the St. Louis Region
Identify agreed upon priority transportation project(s) for the St. Louis region (e.g., extending MetroLink on the proposed North-South corridor, implementing Bus Rapid Transit) in order to elevate the importance of key projects for the region and make tangible the need and potential benefits of transit.
Develop a State Supported Funding Plan for Public Transit
Develop a State supported funding plan for public transit in order to fill a significant funding deficit when seeking federal dollars for transit capital projects requiring matching funds.
Expand Funding for Public Colleges that Serve Disadvantaged Students
Establish a funding pool in the form of a competitive grant program to encourage public 2- and 4-year colleges to develop disadvantaged students that are well prepared for and matched to labor market demand in key sectors, as defined through partnership with the area business community, by providing more resources based on academic and employment…
Support Federal “Gainful Employment” Regulations
Support federal regulation of for-profit colleges via the U.S. Department of Education final rules focusing on “gainful employment” that prevents students from being buried in debt, sets more rigorous accountability, provides transparency about student outcomes and encourages income-based repayment plans.
Enhance Collaboration Between Educational Institutions and Employers
Enhance and expand collaboration between educational institutions and employers statewide by: Establishing a regional intermediary to ensure greater public-private collaboration in assessing workforce needs and communicating those needs with K-12 institutions, job training programs, and post-secondary education institutions; Developing a regional strategy for aligning educational programs to workforce needs that has clearly established indicators to…
Use Federal Funds in Strategic Maximally Impactful Ways
St. Louis County shall partner with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop an approach that directs Community Development Block Grants to be more impactful
Stabilize Middle-Market Neighborhoods
Develop a regional strategy that actively attempts to stabilize middle-market neighborhoods and that emphasizes the health and well being of existing residents (e.g., Baltimore’s Healthy Neighborhoods program).
Create a St. Louis County Land Bank
St. Louis County shall create a land bank with a dedicated source of revenue and authority to engage in strategic land reutilization
Build Healthy, Affordable Housing
Support the Missouri Housing Development Commission’s 2015-16 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) as it references unit sizes, investment of LIHTC, and workforce housing namely with respect to: Limiting applications to fifty (50) affordable units (with exceptions mentioned in the QAP) Prohibiting new construction and conversion in locations where the total publicly subsidized housing units (as defined…
Enact Inclusionary Zoning Ordinances
Enact inclusionary zoning ordinances to promote access to affordable housing for low-income individuals
Implement a State Section 3 Hiring Program
Create a state complement to the Federal Section 3 hiring program, which requires developers to make employment available to low and very-low income residents of the community in which the development is located.
Implement Earned Income and Child Tax Credits
Implement a refundable state earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC), set at a proportion of the federal credit.
Encourage Savings With Tax-Refund Matching
Institute a match of taxpayers’ savings deposits made during tax time. Directly deposit matching funds into taxpayers’ savings vehicles.
Raise Awareness of Development Accounts
Develop a rigorous plan, drawing on best practices, that leverages schools, social services systems, and other well-positioned partners in order to encourage the multigenerational impact of development accounts.
Create Individual and Family Development Accounts
Provide progressive Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and Family Development Accounts (FDAs) offered statewide by means of a dedicated funding stream from the state. Additional potential funding sources include: Using the Community Reinvestment Act to provide banks with credit for funding development accounts; Offering corporate tax breaks for contributions to development accounts; Redirecting unclaimed savings account…
Empowerment Centers
Identify empowerment centers throughout the St. Louis region to concentrate financial services that provide community development banking and multigenerational financial education (e.g., Prosperity Connection).
Invest in High Functioning CDFIs
Invest in high functioning Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to support community- based investments, financial literacy, increased banking, and access to financial tools designed to promote economic mobility. Fund financial education initiatives through: Public: Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP), Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs), municipal grants, etc. Private: Corporate grants, innovation and technological hubs, volunteers, etc….
Build the Capacity of CDFIs
Banks shall strengthen and secure additional funding to build the capacity of Community Development Fund Institutions (CDFIs) to remove barriers keeping many individuals from engaging with traditional banking infrastructure (e.g., no credit check or lowered credit check standards for account openings; second chance checking; credit-builder products; lower minimum balance requirements, etc.).
Embed Public Banking Models into Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)
Incorporate the critical attributes embedded in public banking models into Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to advance a more equitable economy by namely: Lending to banks with better practices of equitable investing; and Subsidizing interest rates for small businesses, students, and homebuyers Providing local business with greater access to credit Augmenting the lending capacity of private…
Strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act
Regulators shall strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which was designed to help financial institutions meet the credit needs of their community, by: Vigorously enforcing Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and fair housing laws in instances where lending discrimination is believed to exist. Enforcing antitrust laws especially with respect to mergers that could lead to…
End Predatory Lending
End predatory lending by changing repayment terms, underwriting standards, collection practices and by capping the maximum APR at the rate of 36%.
Protect the Rights of Workers to Organize
Protect the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain.
Protect Rights of Local Government
Protect local government’s ability to innovate above the minimum policy standards maintained by the federal or state government to meet the special needs of their community.
Raise the Minimum Wage
Raise the minimum wage to $15/hr.
Create Universal Child Development Accounts
Expand the current scope of the MOST 529 Matching Grant Program so it is used as a platform for progressive universal Child Development Accounts that are: statewide and automatic (opt-out).