The St. Louis Jewish Light strongly encourages our readers to take part in the Putting Kids First ballot initiative for the Nov. 4 ballot in St. Louis County. As noted in these pages last week in a story by Jill Kassander, the Super Tuesday presidential primary in Missouri provided an excellent opportunity for the Jewish Family & Children’s Service (JF &CS) to gather signatures to place the proposal on the general election ballot. The grass-roots citizens initiative, if approved, would provide for a 1/4-cent sales tax, which would generate about $40 million annually to spend on services for children from birth to age 19 in St. Louis County. St. Charles and Jefferson counties and the City of St. Louis have already passed similar measures.

L. Louis Albert, executive director of the JF &CS points out, “This would be the first time a tax in St. Louis County would focus on children’s services,” which of course is a major component of his agency’s mission. He adds, “The county is very large and very diverse in every way imaginable with a lot of different groups — not all equally able to access services.”

One of the key areas affected by a reduction in funds is the area of mental health and substance abuse services. The problems of the mentally ill and their families, and persons who live with drug and substance abuse problems have by no means gone away, and if anything have substantially increased as our awareness of their scope has grown. JF &CS is one of several not-for-profit agencies who have come together to call for the creation of a new fund to serve children in need in St. Louis County. JF &CS and its sister agencies conducted a poll to determine if there was sufficient public support for such an initiative before going forward with the signature-gathering to put the initiative on the ballot. Albert commented, “The polling was so positive. The needs are so visible.” Indeed they are. Problems such as those outlined by JF &CS and the other agencies affect all segments of St. Louis County, in which the overwhelming majority of the 60,000-member Jewish community of Greater St. Louis resides. Among our children are many who are dealing with a variety of mental health issues as well as those struggling with drug and substance abuse. The cost of trying to get by with inadequate funding while the problem grows is far more costly in both dollars and impact on our society than taking action to address the problems with state-of-the art therapy and support systems.

According to the coalition of agencies supporting the initiative, more than 12,000 children in need of services in St. Louis County are not receiving help, and more than 150,000 do not get prevention programs in school. These and other unmet needs impact more than 450,000 families. If nearly half a million families in St. Louis County are affected by a lack of such services, the impact on the entire county is many times that number. Indeed, statistically nearly every extended family in St. Louis County has such needs which are not being currently met.

Among the services which will benefit children and youth with funds that would be generated from the proposed sales tax are: help for homeless youth with transitional living assistance; help and support for families with emergency situations; respite for parents of children with special challenges; counseling, therapy and treatment; education and prevention and temporary shelter services. Funds generated by the tax will be allocated by a volunteer independent board which will be audited each year to be sure that the funds are spent on “effective and efficient programming, according to the needs identified in the community,” according to the coalition.

Support for the initiative crosses religious lines. Catholic Charities has already committed $75,000 to the initiative campaign, and JF &CS is one of the major agencies within the coalition. Despite the bad weather on Super Tuesday, 197 volunteers gathered a total of 2,104 signatures. Della Benham, JF &CS manager of clinical services, one of the volunteers who gathered signatures, told the St. Louis Jewish Light that she “got a very positive reception, especially when I talked about the children.”

The signatures gathered on Super Tuesday were an encouraging start, but much more remains to be done. A total of 40,000 signatures must be gathered by May 1 in order to place the initiative on the November ballot. We strongly urge our readers to join the signature-gathering effort and to also encourage their family members, business associates and friends to sign and then to vote in favor of the initiative. Petition forms are available for signing at the JF &CS, 10950 Schuetz Road, St. Louis, Mo. 63146. To volunteer and for more information on the Putting Kids First initiative, visit www.stlcokids-first.org.