VOTE411.ORG aims to make voting easy, informed

Got election questions? VOTE411.ORG should have you covered. The interactive web site, launched 12 years ago by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, remains a "one-stop-shop" for election related information.

Call for help: Ending student homelessness in Center School District

The mission of the Impact Center program is to end student homelessness in the Center School District within four years. Impact Center’s most pressing need is to raise funds to hire a full-time case manager to work directly and intensively with families to help them overcome their individual barriers to housing success.

Crossing over: LINC advocates help aging foster children, former juvenile offenders bloom as adults

He’d crossed so many rivers of pain, but foster teen Dillon Spradley found an ally when LINC youth advocate Devon Robinson first appeared in the doorway of his guardian’s apartment.

LINC’s youth advocates have helped hundreds of youths in their transition from state care to living on their own, striving to help older foster children and teenagers in the juvenile justice system overcome perilous odds and become independent, thriving adults.

Report: One in four urban Missouri children still live in concentrated poverty

Overall, the percent of Missouri children living in concentrated poverty has declined since the depths of the 2008 recession, but the experience of Missouri’s children varies significantly by race and age, and geographic location, according a new KIDS COUNT data snapshot released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

LINC Commission meets Monday Sept. 23

The LINC Commission will hold its regular monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 23rd from 4-6 pm at the Kauffman Foundation.

A major focus of the meeting is fall enrollment in LINC after-school programs, an attendance initiative in the Hickman Mills School District and other updates.

Here’s the agenda.

The public is invited to attend. Download the meeting booklet.

'They're on my side'; Star School puts court-involved teens on paths to success

If not for Star School, many Missouri teenagers like Adam would have no good educational options as they leave the juvenile justice system. The online program by LINC and the state Department of Youth Services has helped more than 630 youths since 2013.

Seven lessons for curing the digital divide: Federal Reserve Bank of KC drops some knowledge

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — Disconnected: Seven Lessons on Fixing the Digital Divide — focuses on broadband access, economic impact and solutions for communities to narrow the digital divide.

'Families and Schools Together' in Fort Osage aims to make parenting easier for everybody

The first gathering of Families and Schools Together, Inc. refreshed Fort Osage parents and their children with a deep breath of community. Dinner, cooperative games, crafts, and peer support groups helped everyone appreciate the challenges and joys of parenthood. It’s not too late to join.

Web source reveals Missouri's health challenges with powerful detail

Now in its second year, the exploreMOhealth website is proving to be a powerful tool in examining Missouri’s strengths and weakness, and the wide disparities in health indicators county-to-county and ZIP code-to-ZIP code.

Lawyers in your corner: Stressed KC communities fight back with 'Adopt-A-Neighborhood' legal teams

The Adopt-A-Neighborhood Project in Kansas City is helping communities turn around vacant properties with the help of volunteer law firms that join with Legal Aid of Western Missouri to help neighborhoods navigate a knotted legal system. LINC is looking to connect its Caring Communities sites with the project.

Unique library and food pantry in Independence "the start of something big"

The Farview community in Independence gathered for a joyous block party Aug. 17, celebrating the opening of a unique neighborhood library that shares a food pantry and other services.

'Real world learning' blooms in three Indy school districts with new facilities, partnerships

Independence’s three school district superintendents struck on similar themes in their joint “State of the Schools” breakfast Friday morning.

Successful bond issues, bright new facilities, a focus on improving attendance and a call for businesses to join the schools in their intense college-and-career programs — for “real world learning.”

'Your kids, Your families': Work against chronic absence in Hickman Mills means to get personal

The Hickman Mills School District and Attendance Works are taking aim on chronic absence, working with LINC and several community partners to develop personalized strategies that could help all communities ease the heavy impacts of missed time in class.

'An exceptional young man' lost to gun violence in Center, LINC community

Brian Bartlett was eight years old, just days away from starting the fourth grade at Center Elementary School and LINC’s Caring Communities after-school program.

The child was killed as he slept Saturday night, Aug. 10, when a barrage of gunfire ripped through his family’s house in the 8300 block of Tracy Avenue. His mother was wounded. Investigators still have no suspect information or know of any motive for the shooting, police said.

Twitter chat to tackle the question: How to reduce chronic absence, improve reading?

The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Attendance Works and Foundations, Inc. are hosting an interactive Twitter chat on what schools and communities can do to reduce chronic absence this school year, Aug. 21 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Approximately 8 million students are at risk academically each year because they are chronically absent.

New website ready for KC families caught in scramble for summer and after-school programs

Finding affordable local summer and after-school programs can be a frantic scramble for Kansas City families. A new non-profit site — InPlay — has launched in KC to make that search easier. The Kauffman Foundation-funded site is open for business and seeking listings.

Feeling 'the buzz' after 'incredible turnout' for KCPS SummerFest

More than 7,200 children and adults joined in the KCPS SummerFest back-to-school event Aug. 3. Families enjoyed games, performances and crafts as they also completed enrollment and received backpacks and school supplies.

Center families get a jump on enrollment, fun at Back to School Bash

There was business to take care of for many of the families visiting Center’s Back to School Bash — like enrollment, immunization checks and such. But Center made sure it was fun.

Face-painting, balloon animals, mini-golf and hot dogs entertained the hundreds of adults and children who wandered through the many information booths, including a table for LINC.

'Justice in the Schools' moves fast in Year One to help KCPS families with free legal services

Justice in the Schools project director Cori Smith came with a host of numbers to present to the LINC commission meeting in May. But the one that startles her the most, she said, is the four-out-of-10 students who move in or out of their Kansas City Public Schools classrooms every year.

Kansas City Public Schools wins national award for efforts to combat evictions

The Kansas City Public Schools’ unique partnership with determined researchers and lawyers to help rescue district families from evictions earned national recognition this week.

KCPS won the 2019 Research and Assessment Leadership Award awarded by the Council of the Great City Schools.

The school district partnered with LINC, the Kansas City Eviction Project and Legal Aid of Western Missouri in creating data tools to alert school officials where district families were vulnerable and in danger of eviction.