M:STL Staff Highlight - Toni
What began in 2023 as Toni attending a few of our life skills classes here at Mission: St. Louis soon transformed into a fulfilling career here, finding her true passion in life. With a background in social work and as a former teen mother, Toni attended the parenting and anger management classes offered. From these classes, Toni better understood child development, good parenting strategies and being familiar with herself and emotions.
Being drawn toward the positive energy here, Toni applied for a full-time position and was initially brought on as a career coach. Almost two years later, Toni is now a community resource specialist with the Neighborhood Healing Network (NHN). This program provides participants who have experienced trauma with resources to help overcome barriers to education and employment. Her role is to lead out this effort in connecting those with any kind of trauma to therapy and counseling. Participants are offered free counseling sessions and Toni encourages them to seek help.
Born and raised in North St. Louis, Toni cares strongly about the communities served. She brings her experiences and passions to her job, consistently seeing how to expand and better the systems around her. As she continues to work as a community resource specialist, she wants to grow NHN, which she believes has the potential to offer more mental health support.
“I really want to start facilitating classes on mental health and maybe have drop-in sessions for our members because they really do like to talk and confide in people, and they would like some support groups,” Toni said.
Toni remembers working with a Beyond Justice participant who was facing legal problems at the time. Our Beyond Justice program which helps recently incarcerated individuals with their reentry into society, referred to her NHN. After accessing therapy services, she was able to identify the reasons behind her actions and then move forward given this resource and knowledge.
Outside of work, Toni is involved in her community, organizing events like a Back-to School Blast, giving away over 100 backpacks and hosting a Christmas Toy Giveaway, inspired by Mission: St. Louis.
“Before working here, I just had ideas and things I possibly wanted to do,” Toni said. “Being here has helped me see that these ideas are possible and helped me grow not only professionally but personally as well, to give back to my community, organize it and get the people to show up.”
With a passion for community development, Toni wants to invest in her neighborhood which is something that is personal to her. Growing up, she was a part of a desegregation program that bused her to a school in Chesterfield. From the start, she witnessed stark differences between her community and the school she attended.
“It made me want to help people that live in my community and be the change that they need, be the change that I wanted to see and be able to offer the resources that they need,” Toni said.
She has now purchased her childhood home, fixed it up and has purchased another four-family flat across the street that she hopes to keep in the family for generations.
As Toni continues her work both with NHN and beyond, she is continuously inspired by those around her. She genuinely enjoys working at Mission: St. Louis and loves being a part of an organization that is passionate about the community that is served through our different programs.
“The one thing I love is being able to help and serve the people that we serve and being that person where they can come and confide in and we then connect them to the right resources,” Toni said.