Happening now: KC wants your insight to set health priorities, spending

The Kansas City Health Commission wants to know about your quality of life. The commission is using an online survey to gather citywide opinions on what you need to live a healthy, productive life. The survey will inform the mayor and city council about how well our communities take care of us, and what needs to be improved.

KC community rallies with volunteer caregivers to seek improvements in health care system

“Without these people our healthcare system would collapse,” said Jim Nunnelly, organizer of the “community thank-you” event for volunteer caregivers Nov. 2 in Kansas City. The caregivers were greeted by city leaders and then went to work helping an effort to improve our healthcare system.

Commission selects two KCPS schools to tell 'a new history' of the African American experience

John T. Hartman Elementary and African-Centered College Preparatory Academy students and staff were chosen to help gather and share a new history in understanding the complex, 400-year history of African Americans in North America. The schools will be Institutional Ambassadors to the National Park Service’s 400 Years of African American History Commission.

American Public Square tackles affordable housing: Making the numbers work

American Public Square waded into the social dynamics and economics around Kansas City’s pressing needs for affordable housing in an October forum at William Jewell College.

LINC commissioner, partners named among the 50 most powerful people in KC area

Faces deeply familiar to LINC appeared in the pantheon of influential leaders when 435 Magazine recently profiled its choices of the 50 most powerful people in the Kansas City right now.

LINC's Yolanda Robinson to be honored for community service

The National Congress of Black Women is honoring LINC’s Yolanda Robinson as one of five African-American women who will be honored at its Kansas City Black Tie gala under the theme “Reaching Milestones: Empowering One Woman at A Time.”

In the face of winter: KC rally for Tenants' Bill of Rights descends on City Hall

The advocacy group KC Tenants gathered frustrated renters in a biting cold wind to the steps of City Hall Oct. 30 to call on the City Council to pass a Tenants’ Bill of Rights.

Mayor Lucas to join KC Public Library panel on affordable housing

Nearly two years after the Kansas City Public Library and KCPT-Kansas City PBS launched an examination of affordable housing in the city, what has changed? For the better? For worse? Mayor Quinton Lucas, who campaigned on the issue, joins a panel discussion and assessment of where the city now stands—as well as where it might be headed.

FAST graduation day celebrates new wisdom, shared anxieties, mutual joys — and friendship

Graduating families cherished moments of new wisdom, shared anxieties and mutual joys as the eight-week Families and Schools Together (FAST) program came to a close in Fort Osage.

Rosemary Smith Lowe and Lee Bohannon honored for social activism

Founding LINC Commissioner Rosemary Smith Lowe and LINC Community Organizer Lee Bohannon were recognized by the non-profit organization Communities Creating Opportunity with their Social Movement Activist & Advocate Award for 2019.

'Lights On Afterschool' celebrates LINC's daily mission: Empowering children, families, communities

LINC’s annual “Lights On Afterschool” festivals are actually celebrations of LINC’s daily work with its partnering schools of strengthening the lives of children and empowering their families and neighborhoods.

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.