Better Family Life St. Louis: SNAP Families Can Train Free, With Child Care Help
Revised October 23, 2026
What does Better Family Life do in St. Louis?
Better Family Life is a St. Louis nonprofit community development corporation, founded in 1983, that works to stabilize inner-city neighborhoods. From 5415 Page Boulevard it runs workforce training, housing counseling and homebuyer classes, youth and family programs with clinical counseling, and cultural arts. It says it serves more than 50,000 low-income children and adults a year. Call (314) 367-3440.
Keep reading ↓The class is free. The bus fare and the babysitter are not.
That is where a lot of plans to go back to school quietly end: at 7:40 in the morning, coat half on, a toddler on your hip, when the sitter texts that she cannot make it. Better Family Life, the community nonprofit at 5415 Page Boulevard, runs a program built around that exact moment. Families with children who receive SNAP can join SkillUP, a free training and employment program, and the nonprofit says it offers transportation assistance, help with work-related expenses and childcare assistance along the way.
Read that twice if there is a SNAP card in your wallet. The same benefit you use at the grocery checkout can open the door to job training that helps with the ride and the child care. If you know a parent on SNAP who keeps saying “someday” about a better job, this is the paragraph to send them.
There is a catch, and it is on the same page. SkillUP was built with ARCHS to support low-income residents living in the Promise Zone, so your address matters. Say your street address in the first minute of the call to (314) 367-3440, and ask whether it qualifies, before you spend an afternoon on paperwork.
That is the thing worth knowing about Better Family Life. It is not a one-time handout window. It is a place that tries to change the next five years of a family’s life: job training, housing counseling, after-school programs, a counseling clinic and a cultural arts center, all run out of the same organization since 1983. By its own count, it serves more than 50,000 low-income children and adults every year, including people who are underemployed, unemployed or short on the skills employers ask for.
So the question to bring when you walk in, or dial, is not “what can you give me today?” It is “which of your programs fits where I am right now?” That one change in the question gets you a much better answer.
What does Better Family Life do in St. Louis?
Better Family Life is a St. Louis nonprofit community development corporation, founded in 1983, that works to stabilize inner-city neighborhoods. From 5415 Page Boulevard it runs workforce training, housing counseling and homebuyer classes, youth and family programs with clinical counseling, and cultural arts. It says it serves more than 50,000 low-income children and adults a year. Call (314) 367-3440.
SkillUP: job training that plans around your kids
Better Family Life describes SkillUP as a comprehensive, customer-friendly training and employment program for low-income residents of the Promise Zone, open to families with children who receive SNAP. Beyond the training itself, the nonprofit lists transportation assistance, work-related expenses and childcare assistance among its services, and it says it helps participants with career pathways, short-term training, job placement and keeping the job once they land it.
One concrete example from its workforce development page: a Call Center Representative Certification course. Students learn customer service and computer skills, practice on automated call simulations, take a final certification exam, and come out with an NRF Customer Service and Sales Certification plus interview and placement opportunities. It is the kind of headset-and-keyboard job you can start without a degree.
If you get Temporary Assistance, read this part twice
This is the fact that can cost a family real money. Better Family Life’s own workforce page spells it out: Temporary Assistance recipients must immediately take part in employment and training activities once they are approved for benefits, and TA benefits will be cut and stopped if recipients do not participate. Recipients age 18 or older, and teen parents under 18, are required to take part in the Missouri Work Assistance program.
Better Family Life lists MWA among its workforce programs, and says MWA services are provided through a partnership with the Family Support Division and local community agencies. The program helps people prepare for a job, get real work experience, find work and keep it. If a letter about work activities is sitting unopened on your kitchen counter, open it, then call.
Housing help that starts before the foreclosure letter
Better Family Life’s housing department works with low- to moderate-income families, and its tools are counseling and classes rather than a check. If you are behind on a mortgage, its foreclosure intervention counselors sit down with you face to face and work out a plan with your lender, aiming to avoid foreclosure altogether or to reduce the financial penalties and credit damage that come with it.
If you are on the other side of that, still renting and hoping to buy, its Step Up to Home Ownership track is an intensive, accelerated homebuyer program that covers household financial management, credit restoration and lending alternatives, with hands-on help through the buying process. The department also runs a housing class you can register for on its page.
Do you live inside its home turf?
Better Family Life serves families across the region, but its housing department draws a tight line around the neighborhoods it works hardest in. It leads the Page Blvd Revitalization Initiative, a community-driven planning effort supported by the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and NeighborWorks America, among others. Its primary service area, in its own words, runs from Vernon Avenue on the south to Wells Avenue on the north, and from Kingshighway Boulevard on the east to the city limits on the west.
If your front porch sits inside those four lines, you are in the part of north St. Louis this organization has spent decades trying to steady, block by block. Mention it when you call. It tells the person on the phone a lot about which programs and partners are closest to you.
People are asking
Is there a comprehensive St. Louis area service directory?
Yes. United Way 211 keeps a searchable online directory of agencies and resources for United Way of Greater St. Louis’ service area and the entire state of Missouri. You can also dial 211, or 1-800-427-4626, to reach a certified resource specialist who can point you to food pantries, shelters, rent assistance and utility assistance. Texting that same number reaches a navigation specialist Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For kids and teens
The Youth and Family Department says it served over 9,000 children last year. Its after-school and summer participants get hot, nutritious meals, so the kid who comes home at six has already eaten.
For teenagers and young adults, there is the Summer Job League. It is a workforce placement program for emerging workers ages 16-24: they earn workplace skill certificates, connect with area businesses and get real work experience while earning a paycheck. A first paycheck at seventeen does more for a kid’s confidence than any lecture about responsibility.
Younger kids have their own door in. America SCORES St. Louis, a Better Family Life initiative, works with students in urban communities through soccer, writing, creative expression and service learning, with teamwork as the thread that ties it together. Muddy cleats one afternoon, a poem read out loud the next.
The same department runs Wellness and Clinical Services, staffed by licensed psychologists, licensed clinical social workers and provisionally licensed mental health professionals who offer counseling, crisis intervention and clinical case management to youth, adults and families.
Behind on the Ameren bill instead of the rent? Start with our guide to utility help in St. Louis.
A $7 dance class on Tuesday nights
Not every reason to walk through the door is a crisis. Better Family Life’s cultural arts program holds Afrikan Fusion and Traditional West Afrikan Dance Classes on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., $7 a person, ages 10 and older. That is an evening of music and movement for less than a fast-food meal.
It is also home to the Art and Empowerment mural, which Better Family Life calls the largest Black history mural in the state of Missouri. Guided tours cost $10 a person, with group rates available. If you are a teacher or a youth leader, there is a curriculum to go with it.
When you need rent money this month
Be honest with yourself about the timeline. Better Family Life’s housing work is counseling and classes, which help most when you start before the crisis. If the eviction notice is already on the door, you need rental assistance, and that is a different kind of program.
One St. Louis County option is Loaves and Fishes for St. Louis, which offers up to six months of rental and utility arrears to households facing financial hardship. Read its notice first: its page says it is not accepting applications for assistance right now, and asks people not to call. Check back on the page rather than the phone. When it does reopen, its rules are strict: due to funding restrictions you must live in St. Louis County, and household income must be below 30 percent of the area median income, with other requirements possible depending on your situation.
When a door like that is closed, United Way 211 is the fastest way to find the one that is open. Dial 2-1-1, or search its online directory, and ask specifically about rent assistance in your county.
Write down one number before you close this page. Better Family Life is at (314) 367-3440, and for everything it does not cover, browse the St Louis Near Me public services directory to find nonprofits and community programs across the metro.
If you run the after-school program, the job-training class or the food pantry that families are looking for, listing it with us is how the next family finds you.
More St. Louis help from our guides:
- Food pantries in St. Louis
- Free food giveaways happening today
- Searching for help online with FindHelp
- The St. Louis Public Library’s community resources
- Our Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood guide
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some notable charitable organizations in St. Louis?
Better Family Life, founded in 1983, serves more than 50,000 low-income children and adults a year with job training, housing counseling, youth programs and cultural arts. United Way 211 connects people to agencies and resources across United Way of Greater St. Louis’ service area and the entire state of Missouri. Loaves and Fishes for St. Louis offers rental and utility arrears help when its applications are open.
What housing assistance programs are available in St. Louis?
Better Family Life offers foreclosure intervention counseling, its Step Up to Home Ownership homebuyer track and a housing class you can register for, aimed at low- to moderate-income families. For rent help, dial 2-1-1, and check Loaves and Fishes for St. Louis, which offers up to six months of rental and utility arrears to St. Louis County residents when it is accepting applications.
Who helps pay rent near St. Louis, mo?
Loaves and Fishes for St. Louis offers up to six months of rental and utility arrears for eligible St. Louis County households, but its page currently says it is not accepting applications. United Way 211 lists rent assistance among the basic needs it connects people to; dial 2-1-1 or 1-800-427-4626.
What are the ways I can get help with my utility bills in Missouri?
Dial 2-1-1 for United Way 211, which serves the entire state of Missouri and connects people to utility assistance. In St. Louis County, Loaves and Fishes for St. Louis also covers utility arrears when its applications are open. Our guide to utility help in St. Louis lists more programs.
Who qualifies for cash assistance in Missouri?
I could not confirm the state’s full eligibility rules for Temporary Assistance from a page I could check, so ask the state before you apply. What Better Family Life’s page does spell out is the rule after approval: recipients must take part in employment and training activities right away; recipients age 18 or older and teen parents under 18 are required to join Missouri Work Assistance, and benefits can be cut and stopped if they do not participate.
How to get immediate financial help?
Dial 2-1-1 to reach a United Way 211 resource specialist, who can connect you to food pantries, shelters, rent assistance and utility assistance. If you receive SNAP and have children, ask Better Family Life at (314) 367-3440 about SkillUP, its free training and employment program for Promise Zone residents, which offers transportation and childcare assistance.
Where is Better Family Life and how do I reach it?
Better Family Life is at 5415 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63112, and its main number is (314) 367-3440. When you call, say what you need help with first, whether that is job training, a mortgage problem, a program for your kids or counseling, and ask which program fits your situation and your address.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.