“I’m looking for my leaders,” he says. “Show me your hands if you are a leader. Raise them high!” Nearly every child is waving. “Everybody look around,” Wilson says. “These are my young people that will help you if need help.” He didn’t ask, but every one of the blue-shirt LINC staffers has made the same promise — to the children, their families and the community.

When it comes to understanding the paths through and out of poverty, the LINC teams in the training room were ready for an advanced course. So when LINC gathered its staff with specialists from the Missouri Department of Social Services to train on “Bridges out of Poverty,” the work got serious fast.

“LINC approaches summer with a go-get-’em attitude.” So goes the energy across before and after school programs with all of LINC’s school district partners and special Freedom Schools as hundreds of children saw their summer education spiced with exciting field trips and celebrations.

It might be a sullen child alone, head tucked down in the morning. Or an anxious child, lashing out at other children at the end of a school day. They can move hidden within the swirl of a busy classroom, and LINC is working with the Kansas City Health Department to help see to it that these children are seen, understood and comforted.

On the surface, the night was all about fun — bus rides together to classic sports gyms and event spaces, stopping at a corner store for 3 a.m. for treats, gaming into dawn. But there was another layer, maybe not so obvious to the boys . . .

The experience is inspiring to the Pitcher community and to the other Caring Communities sites that are trying to empower their neighborhoods. “Shout out to the site councils,” LINC’s Andrew Smith said. “You have a chance to get out into the community and do some cool things.”

See what makes middle school years special for LINC and our Caring Communities as we celebrate the Grandview Middle School graduation with guest State Rep. Anthony Ealy.

Shootings, crossfire, accidental deaths, lasting grief after the curious pull of a trigger. The P.O.S.S.E. anti-violence team went to LINC classrooms this spring to educate and recruit child leaders to be the ambassadors for a healthy summer, safe from the danger of gun violence.

The fleet of riders in LINC’s first 5K Bike Ride rolled onto Grandview’s Little Blue River Trail May 17 with some bikers who’d never tried such a distance before. “I just pushed,” 9-year-old Gennessys said. “Pushed my way into it.” “My legs kind of hurt,” said Araya, 10. “But it was fun . . . It’s fun to go biking with your friends.”