Community Partnerships
Focused on fostering meaningful connections with our local community, the Brown School strives to cultivate, support, and sustain partnerships that bring about transformative social change.
We are WashU in St. Louis, for St. Louis and with St. Louis.
Strategic Geographic Focus
Our partnerships extend into under-resourced geographic areas in need of support and investment: North City, South City, North County, and East St. Louis. These areas are not only critical to our mission but are also integral to the overall well-being of the St. Louis region.
A Win-Win Collaboration
Our collaborations yield mutual benefits. While enriching our academic mission, they also create real-world impacts by partnering with trusted community-based organizations that are addressing pressing social issues within St. Louis through a lens of social and economic justice.
The Connective Hub
Currently, the School’s Administrative Partners are but not limited to
Located in St. Louis’ North City, Better Family Life (BFL) offers holistic solutions to issues that commonly threaten the family unit. They provide life-enhancing employment training and placement; education; housing and asset development; community outreach; and youth, family, and clinical services. The Brown School has commissioned space at BFL to be used for meetings, classes and workshops, which provides students, faculty, and staff with valuable insights into the needs of the area community.
Family Forward is transforming the way we understand the effects of childhood trauma. We use a trauma-informed, developmentally sensitive approach to understanding the impact of a child’s history on current functioning. Our comprehensive services support the child, family, and broader community.
Brown School Priority Areas
Key Community Initiatives
HomeGrown STL
HomeGrown STL, a project of the Center for Social Development’s Race and Opportunity Lab, focuses on building regional capacity to foster the positive development of young Black males in our community. The death of Michael Brown highlighted immense concerns regarding Black boys and young men in St. Louis, and responses yielded investments to programs. Lacking, however, was the data needed to guide strategic planning and evaluation. HomeGrown STL brings together key partners, under the leadership of Professor Sean Joe, to provide the infrastructure to better inform services and policies—and improve outcomes.
The Center for Human Service Leadership
The Center for Human Service Leadership (CHSL) was developed to support the capacity and leadership of nonprofit tenants at Delmar Devine, a new real estate initiative in North St. Louis City dedicated to community development, social improvement and collaboration in St. Louis and the nation. Directed by Professor of Practice Barry Rosenberg, CHSL will use a racial equity lens to contribute to the long-term development of social service organizations, assisting in organizational governance, data-driven strategic thinking, innovation, talent development and collaboration.