East Side Heart & Home Family Center 501c3

09/02/2026

Our two fabulous leaders, Sr. Carol & Sr. Maryann, with a few of our younger community members. We love the multigenerational connections made at the Family Center. 💙💙💙

08/31/2026

More photos of our community celebrating Sr. Carol. 💙💙💙

08/30/2026

🎉 Happy birthday Sr. Carol! 🎉

08/30/2026

Our amazing director and foundress was celebrated today for her 80th birthday. Her huge heart & passion for this community are woven through every part of the tapestry that is East Side Heart and Home Family Center.

08/27/2026

08/25/2026

Thank you Isaiah for sharing your time & talent with us this summer. Read his story➡️

"How much of a city's story depends on who gets to tell it? For East St. Louis, a city most outsiders only know through negative headlines, that question matters more than most.

That question sat with me all summer as a St. Louis Fellow, a 10-week program that places students with local nonprofits in the St. Louis region, run by the WashU Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement. It also includes community based coursework where fellows learn the region's history and meet regularly for seminar discussions.

My placement was at the East Side Heart & Home Family Center in East St. Louis. While I was there, I learned the city's history of industrial growth, race riots, white flight, and deindustrialization, all of which left a lasting negative mark on its majority Black community. I spent the summer working toward the Family Center's mission to create connections and open up opportunities for positive change in East St. Louis, rebuilding a sense of community and pushing back on the negative way the city's story usually gets told from the outside.

I ended up doing a little bit of everything at the Center. I led the youth summer program and worked as a digital storyteller for the website, sharing stories about the positive work happening in East St. Louis that do not usually make the news. I also helped organize a backpack and school supply drive and helped maintain the group garden, which grows produce for local residents and area food banks.

What stayed with me most was engaging with the residents while I was working there. Connection can be a source of healing, and understanding someone's background has to come before understanding their character. As an outsider, I sat with harder questions about where I fit in and what I can actually do to help. Wherever I go next, I want my work to be where it is needed most, and to carry forward what I learned here about understanding people and treating them with kindness.

I am thankful for how much this summer expanded my understanding of people and community, and grateful to everyone at the East Side Heart & Home Family Center and the St. Louis Fellows Program."

Isaiah Cooper

08/22/2026

Good morning everyone. Have a glorious day!

08/13/2026

💙Let's believe in ourselves!💙

08/09/2026

💙Learning in motion💙
The ways that the Bailey Youth Enrichment Foundation pour into the young people of our community each summer is such a blessing. This is what learning in motion looks like.