Barbara Carswell carries forward priorities of YouthBridge as new CEO

“I am looking forward to working with our donors towards creating a landscape where all children and families in St. Louis have the opportunity to thrive,” says Barbara Carswell, the new Chief Executive Officer of YouthBridge Community Foundation. In her first month, she is reasserting the foundation’s long-standing commitment to caring for the future of St. Louis and its most pressing priorities during a global pandemic. In partnership with its clients, YouthBridge has granted nearly $30 million into the St. Louis community since transitioning to a community foundation in 2005.

Carswell joined YouthBridge in 2013, serving as Vice President of Grants and Community. Prior to that, she was a tax attorney as well as the Executive Director of a child serving nonprofit.

“I am very proud of how YouthBridge has doubled down on our efforts to support nonprofits struggling under the weight of this pandemic and to champion the needs of our most vulnerable, marginalized populations,” says Carswell. “These are not new or short-lived commitments. We have always supported the sustainability of our local nonprofits and offered resources where no one else does, investing in the ideas and innovative programs we believe can move all of St. Louis forward.”

Carswell says that in 2020, YouthBridge awarded over $100,000 in COVID recovery and relief to 18 different nonprofits serving children and families in St. Louis and provided in-depth resiliency awareness and risk management consulting to its nonprofit Heritage Grant recipients. To assist community members directly, it established the Immigrant Family Emergency Response Fund in collaboration with several other foundations, which has channeled $350,000 in COVID relief to immigrant families under financial distress.