User:CommSpec2/ARCHS

Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) is the state of Missouri's designated nonprofit community partnership. “ARCHS provides financial and management services to for-profit and nonprofit businesses.” This intermediary organization is one of 20 similar “community partnerships” in Missouri.

What ARCHS Does
ARCHS does not directly provide programs or services to the general public. Through their funding partners, ARCHS selects service delivery partners that are the most qualified to provide the required services. Once a service delivery partner is selected ARCHS applies a strategic management system that enhances the overall business program of that service delivery partner. One of ARCHS main goals is to enhance the overall business and program practices of its service delivery partners. In order to achieve this ARCHS provides financial services, and advocates a lifelong learning platform. ARCHS keeps in close contact with all of its service providers to administer personalized education, resources, and on-site consultations through its community partnerships. ARCHS also helps its providers complete licensure and achieve accreditation.

ARCHS Programs
ARCHS is an active partner in the Afterschool for All Partnership (ASAP). “The partnership is a collaboration between Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) and St. Louis for Kids. The goal of ASAP is to increase access to after-school programs by area children and to create an organized after-school network for the region.” The partnership’s plan is to gather diverse funders to pool resources for grants, develop a system for monitoring accountability and evaluation, and to provide quality improvement and professional development. ARCHS helps secure funding for ASAP as well as supplying the partnership with their strategic management system to improve accountability and enhance the business practices of the ASAP programs. “ARCHS currently supports 45 after-school locations that include physical activities and healthy snacks, in addition to academic enrichment and positive social relationships. Through these after-school programs 4,000 children and 260 jobs are supported.

ARCHS also focuses on preventative healthcare through a network of more than 400 community partners. One of the programs ARCHS assists is the Health and Dental Care for Kids clinic. Through ARCHS the clinic has been able to obtain grants that fund essential positions that otherwise would not have been attainable within their budget. ARCHS has conducted summer camps for area youth in partnership with Maryville University’s School of Health Professions, and provide support to a regional Missouri HealthNet (MHN) education and outreach committee of community volunteers. ARCHS also actively promotes health-related careers through its welfare to work and prisoner reentry partnerships.

ARCHS currently supports more than 80 child care centers that include a focus on providing safe/nurturing environments, developing physical motor skills and healthy eating habits. In addition ARCHS provides courses taught by nationally trained, local law enforcement officers which focus on improving youth life skills and decision making to reduce the impact of bullying and drugs through their Gang/Drug Prevention Partnerships. Annually more than 3,000 children receive this healthy start and 150 area jobs are impacted. Many of ARCHS’ early childhood standards to increase access and quality are being used as models by the state.

Since 2002, the Missouri Department of Corrections has worked with several state agencies to develop a model to help ex-offenders while they are in prison and once they are released. This model, called the Missouri Reentry Process, includes job skills training and placement, mental-health referrals, and housing programs. ARCHS provides the management oversight for the St. Louis Alliance For Reentry (STAR), a program that works within the Missouri Reentry Process to provide a pre- and post-release mentoring program that focuses on 18-35-year-old nonviolent offenders. The program provides life-skills and job-preparation training, financial literacy and health issues education, as well as emphasizing repairing and strengthening personal relationships.