LINC has been a partner of the Hickman Mills School District since 1994, when Santa Fe Elementary School became one of the first LINC Caring Communities sites. In 2007 LINC greatly expanded its presence in the district when it began offering the Caring Communities Before & After School program at all eight elementary schools in the district.
Yaw Obeng is the district superintendent.
Families enrolled in the Ingels Elementary year-round program begining June 5, 2024, can now enroll their children in the Ingels LINC Before & After School program. Fill out the online pre-enrollment form to get started.
Las familias inscritas en el programa anual de la escuela primaria Ingels a partir del 5 de junio de 2024 ahora pueden inscribir a sus hijos en el programa antes y después de la escuela de Ingels LINC. Complete el formulario de preinscripción en línea para comenzar.
Students in the LINC After-School Program at Ingels Elementary test each other on their homework.
Pre-K programs are available in the Hickman Mills School District at Ervin Elementary and Freda Markley Early Childhood Center. Program cost is $55 per week. Child care subsidies are available for qualified individuals.
“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.
Mike Lane and his Amyloidosis Army came to Hickman Mills with an urgent message about the pervasive but little known disease that affects at least one-in-25 people among the U.S. Black population.
We’ve got witnesses. Children and LINC staff who were there tell the tale of explosions, bubbling concoctions and seeming magic that was the first year of LINC’s in-house S.T.E.A.M. team.
“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.”
The LINC Morning Star meal program is part of a statewide network providing free food for children under 18. An online map and text number provides access to hundreds of locations in Missouri.
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.
(816) 316-7992
jkynard@kclinc.org