St. Louis Mental Health Board

Mission / History

From the Beginning

The St. Louis Mental Health Board (MHB) is a government entity originally established by authority of the Community Mental Health Act – a Missouri statute. This legislation permits counties to pass a special tax to raise funds for mental health and substance abuse services. The City of St. Louis joined 12 other Missouri counties in 1992 when city voters passed Proposition Care – the mental health mil tax.

MHB is neither a city, nor state agency. Rather, it is a separate government entity, referred to as a Tax District.

While the mental health mil tax passed in November 1992, revenue did not become available until January 1994. During this time Board membership was determined.

In January 1994, Don Cuvo became Executive Director. Mr. Cuvo was an experienced public administrator who was working with the city’s Department of Health and Hospitals at the time. An Office Manager and Grants Manager were hired to begin the work of the Mental Health Board. An office was quickly established at 4144 Lindell in the Central West End.

The following information provides further highlights from MHB’s history:

Highlights of Our History

1995

MHB awarded $2,250,000 during two rounds of funding. In the first round, $750,000 was awarded to 17 agencies for essential capital improvements to their properties. Later, $1,500,000 was awarded to 15 agencies to improve and expand services. These grants were supplemented by almost $400,000 from matching funds from the Missouri Department of Mental Health, Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse in a unique matching grants arrangement, which continues each funding year.
MHB soon became aware that its funds were insufficient to meet all the needs. It decided to focus its funding efforts on the adult population in need of treatment, while remaining alert to opportunities to generate additional funds for children services.

1996

Though unfunded, MHB legally established the Community Children’s Services Fund (CCSF) through a Board Resolution in order to demonstrate the Trustees' resolve to develop additional resources for children’s services.

1997

The Community Children’s Services Fund was placed on the March 1997 ballot after a petition drive collected close to 30,000 signatures. While the measure did not win in the March election it garnered 43 percent approval and passed in 18 wards – all northside and central corridor wards. This indicates a wide range of support from the voters in those wards.
MHB was a partner in the federal Safe Futures Grant, which sought to develop specialized services for youth involved in the Juvenile Court.

1998

It became abundantly clear during the Children’s Services Fund Campaign that MHB was unknown to many and that any future success was dependent upon MHB garnering wide support for its contributions to the city. MHB, with the assistance of a professional marketing firm, began a yearlong systematic approach to increase the community’s awareness of MHB and the services offered by its funded agencies. Now, MHB has a continuous effort to promote public awareness. It was during this time that MHB moved into a new era with the theme, "A New Vision for Mental Health," emphasizing a much broader scope than traditional mental illnesses.
In preparation for its second three-year round of grant making, MHB conducted a strategic plan to set the course for the next three years. A key feature of the planning process was the identification of six pressing needs (funding priorities) which MHB would fund beginning in July 1998 through a Request for Proposal process.
In order to fully meet these six pressing needs, an additional Grants Manager was brought on to the staff.

1999

MHB’s second three year round began in January with the issuance of a Request for Proposals and ended with 17 proposals funded. Also, during this period separate capital improvement and special one-time funding grants were awarded. Funds for these occasional grants were the result of savings in the previous year’s budget.
The St. Louis Mental Health Board/Juvenile Justice initiative became a reality after two years of planning and developing resources. This Initiative provides intensive mental health services for juvenile offenders with serious emotional disturbances.
Under a new federal grant, MHB and St. Louis Public Schools began the cooperative partnership on the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative to create a safer, more productive environment. Working with the school system, mental health counselors helped prevent violence, served as resource people in the areas of conflict resolution and anger management, provided crisis intervention and made appropriate referrals, as needed.
MHB stepped up its public education activities in response to a survey, which indicated that many community residents still lack information about mental health and drug abuse issues and the help available to deal with these problems.
MHB began a cable show on City 16 (now known as City 10), "How's YOUR Mental Health?"
MHB sponsored the 1999 Children of Metropolitan St. Louis Report.

2000

MHB was awarded a contract from the St. Louis Public Schools to develop school-linked mental health services under the federal Safe Schools-Healthy Students Partnership.
MHB rescued a $500,000 state grant to St. Patrick Center that would otherwise have been lost to St. Louis.
MHB facilitated the Empowerment Center joining a federal project, bringing an additional $125,000 to the City of St. Louis.
For the first time MHB serviced as a co-sponsor of the NOPCAS (National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide) Conference, which was designed to raise awareness of suicide.

2001

MHB adopts a new theme, "Funding Programs That Work, Creating A Brighter Future For St. Louis."
During a needs assessment MHB became aware that the needs of thousands of children and youth were still unmet. It was at this time that MHB became attuned to the issues of immigrant/refugees in St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS). It developed specialized counseling resources for children and families who didn't speak English and training in cultural competence for teachers, counselors and agency personnel. The "World in St. Louis A Cross Cultural Guide" was developed as a resource in understanding the 54 different cultures represented in SLPS.
The first e-newsmagazine entitled, "How's Your Mental Health?" launched in August. This issue focused on youth violence, safe schools and related topics.
MHB received a $581,596 grant from a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to identify and assess homeless persons with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders and to develop a community team to provide treatment and assistance in the areas of housing, social support, daily living and vocational needs.
MHB received a $420,238 grant for expanding services to mentally ill youths younger than 14 who are referred through the truancy court. This intensive mental health and substance abuse approach that had been available since 1998 to older youths would now be available to all youth involved with the juvenile justice system.
MHB sponsored the 2001 Children of Metropolitan St. Louis Report
As the local mental health authority, following the 9/11 crises, MHB was sought out to provide mental health crisis education/support by various media networks.
In order to implement the various and multiple Federal grants, staff expanded once more to add a Federal Grants Manager position.

2002

MHB coordinated a workshop with HMO’s and MC+ – Children’s Health Insurance, which helped to bring together 22 new trained providers to the HMO’s network that will provide mental health services for city residents.
On March 22nd, MHB partnered with the St. Louis Office for MR/DD Resources to hold a rally at Kiener Plaza for the Friends of Mental Health to urge our elected officials to protect the budgets for mental health. As a result, cuts to the mental health budget were much fairer and greatly reduced from the level that was originally proposed.
This was the first year that MHB started its annual educational print column entitled, “How’s YOUR Mental Health”.
MHB, in cooperation with MR/DD Resources, organized a Multicultural Summit, which resulted in the formation of a Multicultural Task Force. The first publication of the multicultural guide in St. Louis entitled “The World in St. Louis” was made available to service agencies. Recognizing the specialized needs of St. Louis' immigrant/refugee population, MHB designated this issue as an "Initiative" in order to provide greater staff support and resources.
In June, MHB added a full time secretary position to support the increasing amount of work and correspondence generated in program implementation and communication efforts.

2003

MHB sponsored the 2003 Children of Metropolitan St. Louis Report
MHB shift toward outcome based management by fully embracing this approach developed by The Rensselaerville Institute (TRI). This approach is a fundamental shift from funding programs or agencies to investing in the community.

2004

In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, Dr. Ed Sontag, Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at HHS presented MHB with a $345,069 federal grant for support services to victims of torture at a local press conference hosted at MHB’s offices.
At a September 13th ceremony, MHB celebrated its tenth anniversary at the Sheldon Art Gallery. A new round of three-year grants totaling $6 million were awarded to 11 local agencies from 43 proposals.
In November, voters approved a new and dedicated tax to fund much-needed children’s services. This event was the culmination of the goal MHB established in 1995.

2005

MHB engaged The Rensselaerville Institute to lead a year-long outcome oriented strategic planning process for the Community Children's Services Fund.

2006

In January MHB created the position of Deputy Director and brought on two addtional Project Directors in order to fully implement the Community Children's Services Fund.
A Call for Co-Investors was released in January to request proposals addressing the five investment outcome priorities of the Community Children's Services Fund.
A total of 24 investments were made across the five investment outcome priorities for approximately $5.5 million.
In preparation for the next round of Community Mental Health Fund investments, MHB initiated a new strategic plan and convened nine stakeholder listening sessions.
In September MHB further expanded the staff by adding the position of Administrative Assistant of Business and Technology in order to implement practices that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of project staff efforts.

2007

A Call for Co-Investors was released in January to request proposals addressing the five investment outcome priorities of the Community Mental Health Fund.
In February a Call for Co-Investors was released to request proposals for Capital Improvements and Equipment Acquisition as a one time opportunity for eligible children's services organizations.
A total of 10 investments were made across the five Mental Health Fund priorities for approximately $1.9 million.
Forty-two Capital Improvement grants were awarded for a total of approximately $750,000.

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