On April 19, 2024, Missouri Coalition for Children held a Connected Communities - Thriving Families (CC-TF) convening in St. Louis, Missouri. The group heard from The Core Collective CEO and president Latosha R. Fowlkes about the organization's journey to becoming a community-centric asset. The Franklin County Family Resource Center also presented its parent-peer mentoring program, which is proving to be a successful model for relationship-building. MCC delivered an update on CC-TF, including relevant statistics to the St. Louis area. The convening closed with a collaborative conversation in which each organization shared its strengths in an effort to connect resources across the community. Key takeaways from the convening include:

• Parent-peer mentoring can have powerful positive impacts on families in crisis. Peers with lived experience build parents’ trust in the program and in themselves
• Family Resource Centers emphasize the importance of holistic family support. By prioritizing parental resilience, social connections, and child development, these programs aim to address root issues and provide support with concrete needs
• We can accomplish more together than we can apart; working together as a community (and listening to the community members directly about their needs) is key to serving families effectively

To read the entire convening summary, download the document below.