Missouri Family and Community Trust (FACT) is a partnership between local citizens, business leaders and government with the goal of improving the lives of Missouri’s children and families. FACT is an organization that has 20 non-profit partnerships across the state. Each partnership works within their community to identify and develop solutions to overcome challenges such as homelessness, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, child abuse, after school care, and dental care, to name a few.
While the Family and Community Trust (FACT) is the umbrella organization and their network of 20 Community Partnerships is at the center of their work, they also have taken on the mantel of two large statewide programs. The first is Missouri KIDS COUNT. FACT is the state grantee for this effort driven by the national KIDS COUNT effort by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It tracks the well-being of children through data and trend analysis across all 50 states. The second is No Kid Hungry, a cooperative effort between FACT, the State of Missouri, and Share Our Strength. No Kid Hungry is focused on ending childhood hunger in America by providing nutritious meals before and after school.
AUDIO: Bill Dent, Missouri Family and Community Trust Executive Director, talks about FACT and the partnership with Missouri KIDS COUNT.
DATA & RESEARCH
FACT has a long-standing data partner with its KIDS COUNT effort. The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis (OSEDA) at the University of Missouri makes the Missouri KIDS COUNT data on child well-being available to the public. However, there was a missing component, research that helped tell story of what the data revealed. With funding made available from the Children’s Trust Fund, FACT engaged the Center for Family Policy and Research. With the help of these strong partnerships FACT can not only provide the rich data around Missouri’s children and families, but they can also peel back the layers in the data to explain its implications.
INVOLVEMENT
How can you get involved with Missouri Family and Community Trust?
AUDIO: Advocacy is one of the best ways to get involved with FACT. Missouri Family and Community Trust is a resource for individuals or organizations who support the well-being of children statewide.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
The cornerstone of the FACT community is a Board of Directors, as well as a network of statewide community partners. The nineteen-member FACT board consists of top leadership in state government, and has a mission to promote and support effective public/private partnerships and community involvement to develop innovative solutions for improving the lives of Missouri’s children and families.
AUDIO: Bill Dent explains who the Missouri Family and Community Trust community is, and how they support the efforts of FACT.
CTF PARTNERSHIP
For almost 25 years CTF has partnered with FACT and many of the community partnerships in supporting Missouri’s children and families. The Children’s Trust Fund has provided resources for many of the Missouri Family and Community Trust programs including Missouri KIDS COUNT, a program tracking the well-being of children, through data and trend analysis.
AUDIO: Bill Dent discusses the 25 year partnership between the Missouri Family and Community Trust and the Children’s Trust Fund.
LONG-TERM GOALS
Looking forward, Missouri Family and Community Trust plans to utilize funding from the Children’s Trust Fund partnership for research purposes. Using the connection with the Center for Policy and Family Research, FACT will continue to build a collection of research focused on the well-being of children and families statewide. FACT will also continue to publish this research within articles that will be made available to the public. Most importantly, however, the Missouri Family and Community Trust will continue to elevate the conversation around the well-being of Missouri’s children and families, pushing for advocacy and causing change.
For more information on the Missouri Family and Community Trust, visit MoFact.org or call 573-636-3228.
