![]() “I was really excited when they called me and talked about the opportunity to be a part of the collaborative,” McCray said. Give Black KC would help cover her administrative costs and hire a part-time assistant. Most of the funding came from her own finances, and as it's grown, she’s gotten a bigger space and hired more staff. After jobs in several different sectors, McCray decided to start her business while working as a full-time therapist.īy working with her landlord and sharing a waiting space with other businesses, McCray was able to keep Life's Work alive. McCray has lived in Kansas City her whole life. “We know that there is a stigma around mental health in urban communities, and of course I want to be able to reduce that stigma while providing treatment and education,” said founder Shantai McCray. Life’s Work Counseling and Consulting is a therapy business that offers culturally-competent counseling to Black communities with therapists from the same background as their clients. “It would help tremendously,” Watson said. It’s been harder to get funding during the pandemic, however, because of the number of people in the community who lost their jobs.Ī grant from Give Black KC would allow REAP to buy meat and other food items to give out every Friday, as well as help more families meet bills and rent payments. Now, REAP offers food pantry assistance to 150 families a week and other assistance to 25 families a week. Raytown Emergency Assistance Program, or REAP, helps families in Raytown through utility assistance and rental assistance, as well as food pantry services.Īccording to executive director Michael Watson, REAP began in the basement of Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church in 1982. They’re not just existing and barely making it.” “We’ve got to get families to a place where they’re thriving, you know, they’re being successful. “My vision is to get past the safety net,” Barnes said. Barnes plans to put the money toward providing meals for the women in attendance at the event and hiring a contractor for the nonprofit. ![]() The summer program is scheduled to launch in 2022.īarnes said a grant from Give Black KC would help sponsor the Black Women Get Fit event this October. The Nia Project plans to offer two programs: Black Women Get Fit, an annual health and wellness event, and a summer program for high school girls. “In our community, we have a lot of violence, we have a lot of poverty, we have a lot of broken infrastructure,” Barnes said. The project comes from the work that founder and president Terri Barnes has been doing for 20 years.īarnes previously mentored Black women and girls, but she said her mentees faced bigger challenges than she could address with mentoring alone. The Nia Projectoffers holistic services and advocacy work for Black women and girls in Kansas City. “Each of our organizations represents a different yet important aspect of our Black community, and by supporting and uplifting each of those components of the entire community, we uplift it as well,” Morris said. Give Black KC, Morris said, is helping uplift the nonprofits that are left behind. Morris said there may be an unintentional bias in philanthropic funding that favors other organizations over Black organizations. ![]() Morris said $10,000 from Give Black KC would cover about 40% of renovating an abandoned house, moving The Greenline Initiative closer to turning over another home. The Greenline Initiative finds these absent homes and renovates them before putting them on the market at reasonable prices. Morris said the rest of the homes in her community have absent owners who maintain the homes poorly. ![]() “In 64128, the zip code I live in, only 47.9% of my neighbors own their homes.” “The biggest, most glaring issue is that there’s just a missing middle in housing,” Morris said. KCUR 89.3 Brandon Calloway is one of the co-founders of G.I.F.T.Ījia Morris and her husband started the Greenline Initiative as a response to the challenges they faced as a young Black professional couple looking for housing on Kansas City’s east side.
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