Light, rhythmic sound waves fill the air as Annette Smith reclines in her seat and exhales.
She's joined by a handful of others under a large tent in Fountain Park, all seeking peace of mind days after the May 16 tornado left hundreds displaced and five people dead in the St. Louis region.
The Bullet Related Injury Clinic and its mobile harm reduction clinic from the T STL have been setting up shop in Smith's Fountain Park neighborhood across from the now-damaged Centennial Church every week since the storm destroyed several properties in the area.
The World Central Kitchen and Scoops of Joy, along with people from the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Connections to Success and other groups, have also been present, handing out food, water, ice cream, clothing and other supplies as part of community relief efforts in the storm's aftermath.
It's been a joint community effort that's come together organically based on glaring needs.
The BRIC is one of dozens of organizations that lost half of their federal funding just before the storm, but that hasn't stopped them from being present in the community, said Dr. LJ Punch, a trauma surgeon and BRIC founder and CEO.
"What I'm not going to do is stand here and be a victim, because St. Louis can't afford for me to stand here and be a victim because that's not what we are," Punch said. "At the same time, I think the federal government should be held accountable [for] the way it has shifted its values away from what the community needs most."
And what the organizations need most is support, he said.
Roughly $1.3 million in federal funds was recently cut from Power4STL, the entity that operates the BRIC and the T STL. The funding was part of a three-year, $2 million grant that went toward outreach efforts at the BRIC. The grant started in October 2024 and was halted in April.
"We were able to spend around $650,000 of the $2 million that we were supposed to get for three years," Punch said. "So that means around $1.3 million will not be part of our operating budget for the next two years."
Punch says the financial loss won't stop the organization from showing up for the community, however.
"In moments like this, we recognize that the trauma of this tornado is just like the trauma of a bullet," Punch said. "And so we mobilized our resources. We're bringing out not just basic needs, but care and compassion, active listening, spiritual care, acupuncture, aromatherapy, somatic healing, and all of that's essential to having a community that can be restored after such a deeply traumatic event."
He stopped short of saying how exactly the money will be replaced.
"If the federal government no longer thinks the community is the root of community safety, we need local and other kinds of innovative funding that recognizes the singular role of community and community safety," Punch said.
Diane Drollinger is the CEO of the Network for Strong Communities, which serves over 3,500 nonprofit workers in the state and in southwestern Illinois.
When asked how much federal money nonprofits in Missouri have lost this year, Drollinger said it's hard to pinpoint in the changing landscape. Most important, she said it's the people missing out on services who should be prioritized.
"If we don't have the infrastructure to do the work that we do with a growing need that is changing and being enhanced every day, then it's a family, it's an individual, it's an older adult, it's a person who's differently abled," Drollinger said. "It's all sorts of folks who are not getting the services that they need."
Community support
Smith said she first encountered the BRIC in July 2021 after she was shot in the back when a stray bullet came through her window while she was home in Fountain Park.
The injury was not only traumatizing physically, but also mentally and emotionally, Smith, 61, said. She credits the BRIC for providing physical rehab services that helped her heal. Punch also removed the bullet from her arm that other doctors declined to remove, she said.
"I had PTSD, and they would talk me through it," Smith said. "I thought I was having a mental breakdown."
The BRIC is now helping her through another traumatic event. A tree fell in the back of Smith's insured home, and a wall and ceiling were blown off another one of her properties several feet away in the May 16 tornado.
"It's very important for the BRIC to be in the community," Smith added. "It makes us have so much love and joy seeing people come out [of] their precious time to help us. I didn't know funding was cut, and that's a shame. That's a shame because we really need it."
As Smith listened to therapeutic sounds, Erik Bolton, co-outreach manager at the BRIC, shared acupuncture options. He emphasized that trauma — whether rooted in pain, anxiety, fear, anger or grief — is considered the "real drug" and that addressing trauma can heal the body and mind.
"So when we put the needles in your ear — and you don't have to do the needles, we do just pressure points as well," Bolton said while pointing to a visual display of how the ear connects to various organs like the kidney and lungs. "So we can put the needle or the bead for the pressure point in these locations. And because it's hitting that pressure point, it relieves the pain."
Volunteers from Connections to Success, which offers personal and professional development programs for formerly incarcerated individuals, also joined community relief efforts in late May. The group handed out hot meals that included vegan dishes, as well as chips and other snacks.
The group's regional program director, Petah Walls, said its presence was important because support isn't guaranteed these days.
"With the state of our nation and the support we may or may not get, we need to make sure that we take care of each other," Walls said.
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