The Community Resource guide is an interactive site that allows you to obtain the latest community news, upcoming events, and community directories.
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www.slfp.com
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St. Louis Front Page
Community Info
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St. Louis, MO 63188
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St. Louis Community News, Sunday, October 19, 2003
Parents As Teachers Expands Program To China
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), October 19, 2003 - Parents as Teachers National Center, Inc., has just closed the deal on an initial quarter of a million dollar business initiative to expand its international outreach to China.
The St. Louis-based headquarters for more than 3,400 early childhood and family support programs nationwide. Its partner, Beijing Oriental BabyCare Consulting Co. Ltd., a private pre-school education organization headquartered in Beijing, provides support services to parents of children 0-3 years of age through early childhood centers operated by Oriental BabyCare and franchised throughout China.
In a statement, Sue Stepleton, president/CEO of the Parents as Teachers National Center, said that "The Oriental BabyCare partnership is in direct alignment with our organization's strategic plan to increase outreach to children and families of diverse cultures."
"It is also in line with the organization's intent to seek out alternative sources of revenue. The partnership with Oriental BabyCare will represent a significant addition to the nonprofit's seven million dollar annual budget," continued Stepleton.
"Parents as Teachers National Center derives its income from grants and foundation support, sales of training and curricula, and contracts such as the one with Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Last year, the organization served 244,963 families and 307,000 children in all fifty states and programs outside the US. "An international partnership like this promotes reciprocal learning that can enrich future programs and further our research agenda," stated Stepleton.
Plans call for the translation of training and curricula to be complete by early-2004 at which time master trainers from Parents as Teachers National Center will travel to Beijing to begin the training of a cadre of Chinese trainers.
Housing Starts Continue to Rebound
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), October 19, 2003 - New Census Bureau data indicates that single-family housing starts increased 3.1 percent from August and were 4.9 percent above the September 2002 rate. Building permits also reflected a 3.2 percent increase above rates a year ago.
"The growth reflected in these numbers is another sign that housing continues to lead the way in our rebounding economy. This Administration is committed to making it easier for more families to realize the dream of homeownership," stated Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez. "The President's housing initiatives will help more Americans, particularly minorities, to achieve that dream."
As part of this effort, HUD and its housing industry partners recently sponsored events around the nation providing information about housing counseling, down-payment assistance, flexible mortgage financing and other resources for becoming a homeowner.
Earlier this year, the Administration announced several 2004 budget proposals aimed at increasing the production of affordable housing, combating regulatory barriers, and helping more low-income, minority families become homeowners.
These proposals include: $113 million increase for the Department's HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which will boost the supply of housing that is affordable to low-income families, as well as an additional $200 million for the American Dream Downpayment Fund to help low- to moderate- income families become first-time homeowners and an added $2 million for research to help reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing. Additionally, HUD is requesting an additional $10 million toward housing counseling to help thousands more low-income individuals and families find and maintain homes.
In St. Louis families will receive more than $1 million in federal funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
HUD will send the St. Louis Housing Authority $1,056,864 in federal funds for the St. Louis Housing Authority. The funds will be used for 202 housing choice vouchers for relocation or replacement assistance.
The St. Louis Housing Authority will give the vouchers to families in the Paul Simon and Webbe Elderly Apartments. Currently these apartments are scheduled for demolition.
$1.3 Billion Increase for Veterans Health Care
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), October 19, 2003 - Senator Kit Bond announced Friday a big victory for veterans with an additional $1.3 billion in emergency funding for veterans medical care added to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill.
In a statement, Bond said that "This is a victory for the countless veterans who have sacrificed so much for our country. We must ensure that our service-members from basic training to deployment to discharge receive the care they need. This $1.3 billion increase is a good start."
As the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee that funds the Department of Veterans Affairs, Senator Bond's number one priority is veterans' health care. Senator Bond has worked tirelessly to improve compensation and claims processing while finding solutions to improve training and accountability within the VA system. Earlier this month, Bond was able to win Senate approval to extend medical coverage to Reservists and members of the National Guard currently without coverage.
Bond explained to his colleagues that the VA system cannot currently keep up with the demand of the current veteran population. This is illustrated by the tens of thousands of veterans who have been told to wait at least six months to get an appointment, or in many many cases, up to two years.
Current problems will only grow worse as the thousands of wounded service-members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are discharged from the military and begin to depend on the VA.
October 14, 2003 - (L. to R.) Joining hands at the dedication of the Commerce Bank Education Center: Dr. Peter Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden; Luther Williams, William T. Kemper Director of Education and Interpretation; Wm. Lacy Clay, U.S. Representative, Missouri, District I; David W. Kemper, Chairman, President and CEO, Commerce Bancshares, Inc.; and, Jack E. Thomas, Jr., President, Board of Trustees, Missouri Botanical Garden.
Missouri Botanical Garden Opens
Commerce Bank Education Center
Betty Magrath, SLFP.com staff
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), October 12, 2003 - The Missouri Botanical Garden hosted a special preview, Tuesday, October 14, at the new Commerce Bank Education Center, located at 4651 Shaw Blvd., south of Interstate 44 at the northeast corner of Shaw and Kingshighway.
The building stands on the site of the former R&F Spaghetti plant, west of the Garden's main campus. "This was the first reenforced steel building west of the Mississippi River," stated Dr. Peter Raven, director, Missouri Botanical Garden, during the opening ceremonies. He reminisced that the area around the Garden was once all farms and pastures.
The $8 million building has been retrofitted and renovated as a component of the Garden's "Stewards of the Earth" capital campaign. Of it's 58,000 square feet, 24,000 are devoted to instruction and support by Garden's expanded Education Division.
In an interview following the opening activities, Dr. Raven, emphasized the Garden's mission to improve the educational opportunities for St. Louis students.
"This center will allow us to turn out the best high quality science and math education for all of them," stated Raven. "We are just delighted with the prospect. We are working closely with 13 schools around the Garden as part of a system that will provide all the information, materials and instructional support that we can. We are also glad with what it does for the neighborhood."
Olivia Huddleston-Boatman, 4th grader at Kennard Classical Junior Academy, stated enthusiastically that she expected to learn a lot about computers and how to do many experiments about plant and animal life at the Commerce Bank Education Center.
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Students from neighborhood schools were on hand to answer questions during a tour of the new facility that features several modular classrooms with videoconferencing capability and a computer lab containing 34 computer workstations with individual printers, an instructor workstation, two data connectors and a projection screen.
The center also contains two fully-equipped, state-of-the-art science labs, a reading room and conference room. More than 6,000 pre-kindergarten through grade 12 students at 13 Garden Education Compact (GEC) schools will benefit directly from the center's math and science education resources.
The new facility is the result of a unique collaboration between the City of St. Louis and its major institutions. In an interview, Doug King, president and CEO, St. Louis Science Center remarked that "It's been a tradition here for the institutions to collaborate on programs and funding. I'm originally from Washington, D.C. where the institutions tended to compete. Here, the message was clear from our boards that the Missouri Botanical Garden is a great research institution and that it also does great educational programs for the St. Louis Zoo."
"Our primary purpose is education," continued King. "Combined with the universities, there is more science education going on in St. Louis than almost any other community in the country."
"I think that is because we have forward looking political and community leaders who come up with the funding and the leadership for facilities like this. Commerce Bank and David Kemper have been interested in the subject for a long time," stated King.
"We need an educated and well-informed work force to have a strong economic future. To do whatever you do today, you need to understand the basics in science and technology. And so to make sure that everybody in our community gets those basics is what facilities like this are about," concluded King.
Missouri Botanical Garden will hold an open house for the community on Sunday, October 19, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Staff members from the Garden's Education Division and students will be on hand to talk about the center and answer questions concerning the Garden's Education Compact with 13 St. Louis
public schools and its other programs throughout the region.
Archived Pages:
Missouri Botanical Garden Announces $8.35 Million to Support Neighborhood Economic Redevelopment
Archived St. Louis News:
 Health Care Costs Expected To Rise 15 Percent
Concealed Weapons Banned in City Buildings
First Missouri Lawsuits Filed Againt Spam
Boeing Employees' Fund Donates More Than $2 Million to Charities
Older Americans Urged to Receive Pneumococcal Vaccine
Missouri Initiatives Receive Fed Funds
Jes Us 4 Jackie Campaign Brings World Awareness to Need for African American Bone Marrow Donors
Latina Singer-Songwriter Speaks Out About Breast Cancer Survival (video report)
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