Mosaic Life Care is donating more than $1 million in Community Connect funding to ten agencies for population health programs.

Organizations that received funding included Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Catholic Charities, Community Missions/Crossing, Family Guidance Center, Habitat for Humanity, HEALTH (Helping Everyone Achieve Long Term Health), Legal Aid, Northwest Missouri Children’s Advocacy Center, Second Harvest and United Way.

In order to receive funding the non-profit organizations had to address one or more of three primary health needs as determined by a recent Community Health Needs Assessment.  Those needs included, social determinants that affect access to health care, obesity prevention, and mental health.

“The Community Connect program is a way for Mosaic Life Care to go beyond individual health improvement to get at the basis of population health,” said Pat Dillion, DP, Advocacy/Government Relations for Mosaic. “The allocations committee worked very hard and spent a great death of time on this process and gave each application a thorough evaluations.”

In order to be eligible for funding, the project was required to serve a vulnerable population, be evidenced-based, provide required metrics to show positive impact of program, provide an innovative solution that has the potential for community-wide impact, and have a budget amount between $5,000 and $250,000.

Community Connect
Organization Project summary
Big Brothers/Big Sisters Mentoring Children Experiencing Trauma
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater St. Joseph (BBBS-SJ) has developed a special initiative, Mentoring Children
Experiencing Trauma (MCET), to help the hundreds of children in the Greater St. Joseph community who have or are
experiencing trauma. The types of trauma that youth who enroll into this program could have experienced, but not
limited to, are: a parent or parents in prison, physical abuse, contact with the juvenile court system, in the foster care
system or the death of a parent or family member. By creating this new MCET Initiative, BBBS-SJ will have the resources
and opportunity to help this high-risk group of children by providing a mentor in their lives.
Catholic Charities Catholic Charities Welcome Center
The Welcome Center is designed to fill in service gaps by helping those who are in need – for example those who cannot
afford health insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid or those that are on Medicare but cannot afford the co-pay.
These people have reached the end of governmental benefits and have nowhere to turn. Catholic Charities will help
them meet the co-pay, purchase a medication, subsidize dental work done, get dentures and other related services that
are desperately needed by the seniors, poor and needy, uninsured and disabled.
Community
Missions/Crossings
Drop-in Center
The Drop-In Center will provide a place for men and women who are homeless or
disenfranchised (due to income, inability to find/maintain employment, offender status,
etc.) to go during the day to access services like case management, health evaluation,
and job training. The Drop-In Center will provide whatever activities are necessary to help people who are living on the
streets or have been marginalized to move towards stability that leads to obtaining and maintaining permanent housing.
Family Guidance Center Family Guidance Center (FGC)’s Capital Campaign: Door Always Open
The “Door Always Open” initiative is designed to increase FGC’s organizational capacity to provide additional integrated
behavioral health services and promote access to these services for those most in need. FGC is the Missouri Department
of Mental Health’s (DMH) designated Community Mental Health Center in the region. Currently operating with a waiting
list for those in need, the goal of the planned expansion reflects its name: open the door to care for more area
neighbors.
Habitat for Humanity Faraon Street Revitalization
The project is focused on revitalizing the neighborhood stretching between 22nd Street west to 15th Street on Faraon
Street. The overall conditions of many of these homes are unacceptable and pose health risks to residents who live in
them on a daily basis. Plan includes revitalization of the exterior of every target home. This will include roof repair or
replacement, soffit, fascia, windows, and paint. While repairing and renovating the exteriors of these homes, an internal
inspection of the home, will be made, advising residents and owners of code violations.
HEALTH HEALTH (Helping Everyone Achieve Long Term Health)
Twenty-five safety net and medical care organizations came together to form HEALTH (Helping Everyone Achieve Long
Term Health). The mission of HEALTH is to build a healthier community by optimizing and coordinating services that
encourage and empower individuals to overcome economic and social barriers to achieve long term health. HEALTH uses
a patient centered approach with Community Health Workers (CHWs) providing the ground level vital link between
patients, health care providers and the county’s safety net organizations. All of 25 safety net organizations will be able to
refer clients into HEALTH.
Legal Aid St. Joseph Healthy Housing Project
Legal Aid will represent investors to assist them in rehabbing abandoned housing within the St. Joseph city limits. This
project will aid in improving housing options to local citizens and promote healthier and more vibrant neighborhoods. By
using the abandoned housing act, low income earners have a chance to buy or rent affordable and safe housing and hold
other landlords accountable by directly competing with them for renters. This competition will fuel better housing
products and more legal compliance.
Northwest Missouri
Children’s Advocacy Center
Trauma Education and Support for the child abuse victim’s parent/caretaker.
The goals of this project are:
– Provide education to parents about child sexual abuse and the emotional and behavioral reactions to abuse.
– Provide support and skills to help non-offending parents cope effectively with their own emotional distress
related to the abuse of their child.
– Provide non-offending parents with skills to respond optimally to and support their child.
– Provide parent support groups.
– Provide referrals to other community resources for individual therapy for parent as needed.
Second Harvest Second Harvest Fresh Mobile Pantry
Second Harvest currently serves the partner agencies in our service area, but many of them lack the capacity to store
fresh produce and protein, so deliveries are limited. Some pantries in our service territory are only able to offer a food
service to individuals three or four times per year due to lack of food product available and/ or infrastructure to stock
needed food to distribute more food on a more regular basis. The mobile pantry would encourage distribution more
often to locations such as this one to provide more access to fresh produce and to serve additional individuals with
better nutritional choices.
United Way United Way Success by 6 Resiliency Project
United Way Success By 6 Resiliency Project is designed to provide intervention and support services to young children
exhibiting signs of a possible social-emotional or behavioral development condition. Interventions for young children
with social-emotional or behavioral development conditions must start early and be provided by mental health
profession