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Black Community Fund Kansas City

Jul 14, 2023

NaTika Rowles | Executive Director

In this interview, Ruth Baum Bigus of KC Cares talks with NaTika Rowles, the executive director of the Black Community Fund (BCF). The BCF is a philanthropic organization that has been investing in the African-American community of Kansas City for over 40 years. The fund has provided more than $4.5 million to over 200 nonprofit organizations, focusing on areas such as education, human services, arts, culture, humanities, and faith organizations. NaTika discusses the fund’s shift in focus during the pandemic, its innovative grant-making strategies, and its commitment to supporting black-led, black-serving nonprofits.

visit them here: blackcommunityfund.org

 

What Nonprofit Questions are Answered?

  1. What is the Black Community Fund’s mission?
  2. How has the Black Community Fund adapted its strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic?
  3. What types of organizations does the Black Community Fund support?
  4. How does the Black Community Fund’s grant-making process work?
  5. How can individuals or organizations contribute to the Black Community Fund?

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KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, tells the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and connects them with the community.  

Produced by Charitable Communications 

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In partnership with: 

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

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Transcript:

00:00:01:06 – 00:00:23:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares. We’re Kansas City’s nonprofit voice, and we’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of the nonprofit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play.

00:00:54:16 – 00:01:22:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
This KC Care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. www.Kauffman dot org. I’m Ruth Baum Bigus with the insight of philanthropic leaders in our community, the black community Fund was established as a fund of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation by the Hall Family Foundation. Its purpose was to invest in the African-American community of Kansas City to meet critical needs.

00:01:22:21 – 00:01:49:28
Ruth Baum Bigus
Now, 40 years later, the Black Community Fund lifts others, providing more than 4.5 million to over 200 nonprofit organizations. During that time, organizations focused on education, human services, arts, culture, humanities and faith organizations. Now, Teeka Royals is executive director of the Black Community Fund, and we welcome her as we dig into the work of this organization that’s making change in our community.

00:01:50:08 – 00:01:52:10
Ruth Baum Bigus
The ticket, so great to have you.

00:01:52:12 – 00:01:54:13
NaTika Rowles
Thank you, Ruth. Thanks for having me.

00:01:55:05 – 00:02:23:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, in full disclosure to our audience, we last had someone from the Black Community Fund pre-pandemic, and I would bet by a year or two, maybe before then. So it’s been some time and we’ve been watching around her social media and everything. You all are active, vibrant, doing all kinds of things. Bring us up to speed, though. Give us an overview of the fund and your focus.

00:02:24:22 – 00:03:03:03
NaTika Rowles
Yeah. So I’ve been with the fund. You said the last time you spoke to someone was pre-pandemic. So I think I came along during the pandemic in 2020. And up until then, our fund was focused on grant making scholarships to black students, convening around critical issues that concern the black community. We also did a little bit of convening around the arts and cultural events as well, and I’ve added a little thing that we do, which is mobilizing black philanthropy and communities of color.

00:03:03:03 – 00:03:48:22
NaTika Rowles
So that’s pretty much what our focus has been. We honed in on targeting grassroots, black led black serving non-profits and supporting them, and the need for that has always been around and we’ve always done that. But after during 2020 and all of the racial unrest and social injustices that were going on and living through a pandemic, our board decided that the disparities were this so blatant in the black community and what the needs were that we we just drove into that and started supporting smaller, grassroot and nonprofits.

00:03:48:23 – 00:04:09:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
Well, that’s an interesting pivot and very insightful of a board. So, so much to dove into here. I want to go back to what the board did, but I want to let the audience know. And you came on board in the pandemic?

00:04:10:02 – 00:04:11:00
NaTika Rowles
Yeah.

00:04:11:00 – 00:04:19:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
And you share a little bit what that was like and how you weathered that. Oh, my gosh. Huge storm.

00:04:20:00 – 00:04:53:25
NaTika Rowles
Yeah. So transition is hard. So not only were we transitioning with a new executive director, we were transition, transitioning the needs of the black community as well. So it was difficult, but it was a thing that needed to happen. So for me, we just kind of I just kind of took it as a way to renew, reimagine, just kind of rethink.

00:04:54:03 – 00:05:20:15
NaTika Rowles
But DCF is and what it was and how to stay relevant and those things. So we were literally just trying things. We wanted to do philanthropy different. We knew that we had they had been talking about this. As I said, I came on in 2020. They’ve been doing this for they’ve been supporting, you know, black led, black serving nonprofits.

00:05:20:29 – 00:05:43:23
NaTika Rowles
So we started to rethink what what we could do, how we can take the burden off of the nonprofit, how can we show up in a more trust based philanthropy space? You know, that term was thrown around a lot. How can we focus more on equity? How can we not just allow people to jump through hoops for money?

00:05:44:13 – 00:06:11:15
NaTika Rowles
Because we really just wanted to help in a way that during 2020 it wasn’t happening there. These are the nonprofits that we were serving, didn’t have access. They didn’t have the banking relationships. They didn’t have the social networking to access funds. So in 2020 and yeah, it was difficult because the world was on fire, right? So yeah, we were working from home, you know, that was introduced to the board.

00:06:12:07 – 00:06:36:19
NaTika Rowles
We had to build relationships and you know, we still had a job to do. So even the scholarships that we were giving out that year, that was difficult because they weren’t on campus. There. There, the the things that they had planned to do were shifting. So we had to be, you know, pretty flexible in all of our giving in that way.

00:06:36:29 – 00:07:03:17
NaTika Rowles
But I think the thing that that just kind of turned everything around for us was that the board knew all of this stuff was going on in the world. Right. And so statements were going out. Everybody focused on the equity statement, on diversity, justice. So we put a statement out. But the board was adamant about what are we going to do beyond this statement?

00:07:03:18 – 00:07:39:16
NaTika Rowles
We need to put some money to this statement. So we literally just wrote checks to nonprofits that were serving the black community and voting, registration, housing and food insecurity as well. And we granted out $100,000 that summer, no grant competition, no cycle, no application, literally. Here’s a check for the work that you’ve been doing and the work that we need you to continue to do during this pandemic, during this time, you know, of of racial and social unrest in our country.

00:07:39:17 – 00:08:13:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
So so the board really drove this change with you, with the leadership on land, living on Zoom or Microsoft teams or whatever. We all lived on and lived through. Now that we’ve kind of come out of it, like come out of the pandemic, let’s say that I, I don’t know that the rest of the world has changed tremendously, but how are you now moving forward with that kind of sea change that started during the pandemic?

00:08:14:18 – 00:08:42:08
NaTika Rowles
Yeah. So I mean, we had to shift a little bit, you know, for a couple of years we had to do our events online that was new and different. Nothing that, you know, no anybody else had to do. Everybody was doing this. But our focus is still there. We are committed to serving nonprofits that are serving the black community in a way that in a in a way that’s, I would say, more innovative.

00:08:43:10 – 00:09:05:27
NaTika Rowles
We’re open to how we’re making grants now. It’s not just an application. Last year we held a workshop where we paid nonprofits to come to the workshop. We did a pitch competition. So what it did was and it may be a new because I don’t know any better, I’m like, Yeah, we can do that. Let’s do it. Let’s try it, you know?

00:09:06:18 – 00:09:30:18
NaTika Rowles
Okay, you did that last. Okay, let’s do something different. And they were willing to to allow me to be flexible with with ideas as well. So we literally just created this think tank and we said, what? What don’t we like about philanthropy right now? Let’s just not do that. So what does that look like? Oh, let’s try this.

00:09:31:17 – 00:09:55:24
NaTika Rowles
At the end of the day, we helped fund a lot of smaller nonprofits that would not have gotten funding if we hadn’t stepped in. At the end of the day, those nonprofits went on to bigger, larger relationships with foundations and secured larger dollars over multiple years. And that’s what we wanted to do. Right. So we’re continuing in that.

00:09:55:24 – 00:10:02:04
NaTika Rowles
We have some amazing things coming up in order to continue that work in the black community.

00:10:02:25 – 00:10:04:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ve created a bridge.

00:10:05:12 – 00:10:05:23
NaTika Rowles
Okay.

00:10:06:26 – 00:10:35:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s what that’s what it sounds like. So part of KC cares focus, too. We love all nonprofits, but it’s it’s an extra warm feeling when we can bring a smaller nonprofit that maybe doesn’t have that footprint. And it sounds like you are kind of focused on some of those folks that sometimes are that small voice that doesn’t get heard or there’s so much other talking in the world that that they miss out.

00:10:35:06 – 00:10:45:25
Ruth Baum Bigus
So congratulations to you all. All right. You mentioned all these new insightful things. Share with our audience a little bit about your areas of focus and the kind of new things that you are doing.

00:10:46:12 – 00:11:16:24
NaTika Rowles
Yeah. So I’ll talk about the grant making syntax kind of of what people now they know us for before it was scholarships and we really wanted to shift that. Now we’re like we do a lot of things and sounding the alarm on those things. So with our grant making. I think last year we would probably grind it out over $200,000 to grassroots nonprofits, black led, black serving, right.

00:11:18:06 – 00:11:54:07
NaTika Rowles
The cool thing about that was we revamped our application. It’s pretty simple. It’s pretty straightforward. And as I said earlier, we don’t want people to have to jump through hoops to obtain our dollars. Right. We looked at that. We also looked at different ways that we can engage grantees, especially those that don’t have the social networks and don’t know may not have funds to invest in professional development or resource development.

00:11:54:21 – 00:12:32:24
NaTika Rowles
So as I mentioned before, we created what we call the Vision Workshop. We invited 40 nonprofits to come to this workshop to receive training on storytelling, marketing and social media outcome measurement. Right. And it was got them in a room. The feedback that we received was that you see us Black Community Fund, we’re not alone. We’re out here doing this work and you haven’t forgotten about us because we understand that most of these nonprofits are not paying themselves.

00:12:33:01 – 00:13:00:16
NaTika Rowles
They don’t have the budgets to invest in salaries. Most of them are volunteer. We decided that we were going to give them money to come. So every nonprofit that came received a $500 check at the end. And then we were like, Well, how can we give them some, you know, some more money? It’d be great. So at the end of that workshop, they were invited to pitch our enter a pitch pitch competition.

00:13:01:06 – 00:13:25:02
NaTika Rowles
And it was just like you and I are talking, Ruth They just talked to two people about their nonprofit. And then we decided right then and there who was going to get some money. There wasn’t an application process. So the next day, that evening, we invited these nonprofits to our vision gala. It was a gala to just celebrate Black philanthropy.

00:13:25:11 – 00:14:00:25
NaTika Rowles
It was held during Black Philanthropy Month, which is the national recognized time during August. Every August. So we invited them to come to this gala. And at the gala we made the announcement, the winners of the pitch competition, and we granted eight nonprofits $64,000. And so that was pretty exciting. I love to give away money. One of the one of the nonprofits that I don’t know anybody who’s as excited as Attica about giving money away.

00:14:00:25 – 00:14:34:14
NaTika Rowles
So that’s what we’re doing with grant making. If I can talk a little bit about the scholarships this year, our 40th year, our anniversary year, we did grant 40 scholarships to black students to continue their education. And this is like adult learners, graduate school of high school. Yes, community college, what have you. So 40 of those kiddos are young black students.

00:14:34:24 – 00:15:04:07
NaTika Rowles
I call them kiddos and in a sum of $176,000. Now, that may not seem like a lot of money. And we are a small fund. We’re relatively small, a small funder. But that’s that scholarship. Most of those scholarships were in the sum of $5,000. So that’s that’s a game changer for most of these students, right? Yeah. So and we were pretty adamant about you know, that that amount.

00:15:04:15 – 00:15:41:00
NaTika Rowles
Now we do have some scholarships that were around $1,000 for a student. But overall, so the $176,000 in education for black students. So I’d say we’re trying to chip at that. But financial burden gap there and then convening around critical issues. So we’re in conversations with some community leaders about what we want to talk about, what we want to bring people around issues facing the black community.

00:15:41:10 – 00:16:03:18
NaTika Rowles
Where do you on that? In a very sensitive way because we’re not doing this work. We’re not programing. So we’re talking to these organizations that are boots on the ground. They are in proximity with what’s going on in the black community and to see what do we need to talk about right. Or what what do we need to lift that?

00:16:03:18 – 00:16:38:06
NaTika Rowles
What do we need to give a voice like KC cares? What platform do we need to create for you? So we did create a podcast last year, kind of been talking about it throughout the pandemic because why not? Everybody’s on line, right? That was one of my great ideas. So the podcast drop is this year, during our 40th year, and we just talked to leaders of nonprofits and some volunteers about, you know, volunteerism in the black community, affordable housing in the black community, community development, things like that.

00:16:39:00 – 00:16:50:12
NaTika Rowles
So I urge everyone to listen to that. Yeah. So and then now we’re inching up on our big event that’s coming up in a in the next month. Oh my God.

00:16:50:12 – 00:16:53:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
Is here is the panic.

00:16:55:23 – 00:17:17:20
NaTika Rowles
Yes. And we will be celebrating 40 years of giving. It’s our legacy gala. And here’s the thing, Ruth. We’ve been doing this for 40 years, right and right. Kind of been under the radar. So this gap, this this gala is to tell people week, this is what we’ve been doing and this is what we’re going to continue to do for the next 40 years.

00:17:17:20 – 00:17:39:27
NaTika Rowles
And we’re celebrating that. And then we want to invite people along for to mobilize their giving, to mobilize their philanthropy. Right. And we want to we want everybody to look at themselves as a philanthropist, especially black, because this is what we do. Right. So I’m excited. What’s going on?

00:17:39:27 – 00:17:49:27
Ruth Baum Bigus
Where is the best place for folks to go to find out what everything that you’re doing, find out about your event, look at your grant making opportunities, etc..

00:17:50:19 – 00:18:17:24
NaTika Rowles
Yeah. So we do have a website in that black community find out or so you can definitely visit our website. We’re on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Our offices are out of the Greater Payne City Community Foundation on Broadway. You can pop in. Give me a call. Yeah. So there’s tons of ways to get in touch with us, but I would say our website is probably the easiest.

00:18:18:05 – 00:18:19:09
NaTika Rowles
And the social media.

00:18:21:04 – 00:18:41:28
Ruth Baum Bigus
And again, for full transparency, just disclosure. Folks that are not black or African-American, could they apply for grants if they’re serving the black community or really focused on, you know, black leadership, black, etc.? I think.

00:18:43:05 – 00:19:06:27
NaTika Rowles
Yeah, they can they can definitely apply and we prioritize black lives black survey. So what that means is that we may look at them more. We, we focus on that, right. But if there is a program that just happens to have a white area that’s serving the black community and serving them well, then they could definitely be funded.

00:19:06:27 – 00:19:31:09
NaTika Rowles
And if you look at some of our past grants, you would see that now that we have. So the focus is on serving the black community. What we found during 2020 and leading up to that was that a lot of black leaders, a lot of black professionals did not have access. And not only not only did they not have access.

00:19:31:09 – 00:19:52:10
NaTika Rowles
So there’s something real about when black people are being murdered in the street around you. Right. It’s hard to come to work that day. It’s it’s hard it’s hard to do the work that you know, that you love to do. It comes heavy. It becomes a wait. Sometimes. So our focus on black leaders is to care for them.

00:19:52:17 – 00:20:23:03
NaTika Rowles
Right. Is to let them know that we see you, that we’re here to support you, not only the work that you’re doing, but you as a person that you that they are valuable. Right. It’s not just it’s not just the work. It’s not just the programs. We know that the black community was hit hard during during that time and still really trying to process some of these things.

00:20:23:03 – 00:20:50:10
NaTika Rowles
I mean, the ebbs and flows of the social unrest, the racial unrest in our community affects black bodies. It just does. Right. So when we create a space for them to talk about capacity building, we’re also building camaraderie. I mean, most of those nonprofits are still in touch with each other. They meet I don’t even know they’re meeting.

00:20:50:10 – 00:21:10:00
NaTika Rowles
And they’re like, yeah, they built a mentorship. They built a group of people that that they can process with that are that they’re that’s in the trenches with them. So I think that’s great. That’s the focus on the black leaders.

00:21:11:17 – 00:21:24:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
Where today does the preponderance of your funds come from? You’re handing out you’re handing out money. So somewhere money’s got to be coming in, right? Somewhere.

00:21:27:25 – 00:22:01:04
NaTika Rowles
That’s a great question. I would say, um, for a while we’ve had a pretty substantial grant through the Kellogg Foundation that allowed us to do some pretty innovative work that Grant has now centered. So last year I will say that we received our largest gift from the Sanderlin Foundation a half a million dollar gift. And so but that’s the largest in 40 years.

00:22:01:04 – 00:22:41:08
NaTika Rowles
So, yeah, there’s some some private donations. We do we eat events and fundraising is not part of our resource development plan. And, and and I don’t know that that is a way that we will effectively raise funds. We have a philosophy of investing in the black community. And when we decided to do that in a radical way, like we did and we gave people started giving, well, yeah.

00:22:41:08 – 00:23:11:03
NaTika Rowles
So I don’t know. I mean, most people say you got to spend money to make money. I mean, that’s an entrepreneurship in business, but we have a mindset of whether we are supported or not. This is what the needed. So this is what we don’t do right. And having that mindset, that confidence that we are investing in the black community, people are on board with that.

00:23:11:14 – 00:23:23:28
NaTika Rowles
People want to be a part of that. It’s almost a sense of empowerment to be able to do that. So we have granted a lot of money in the past. Yeah.

00:23:24:17 – 00:23:25:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
Right.

00:23:25:22 – 00:23:55:02
NaTika Rowles
Right. A lot, almost as much as we’ve done in the past ten years. But we’ve also raised a lot of money in the past three years, more so than we’ve done in the past ten years of this fund. And that was by talking to folks like you, this platform that you have, inviting people to join us in philanthropy in a way that is relational, all alone, not transactional.

00:23:56:19 – 00:24:20:03
NaTika Rowles
And people are giving and have donors that are black leaders that are supporting us now. And that that says a lot to me. So, yeah, not an influx of funds. You know, we’re are still a funder that would welcome any donations, right? I have to say that.

00:24:20:27 – 00:24:23:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
Oh, absolutely. Of course. And go to your website. Oh.

00:24:24:09 – 00:24:25:06
NaTika Rowles
No, to my website.

00:24:26:08 – 00:24:27:07
Ruth Baum Bigus
Absolutely.

00:24:27:08 – 00:24:27:25
NaTika Rowles
Like to donate.

00:24:27:25 – 00:24:50:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
But you have such enthusiasm for this work. Give us a peek of where in the tech it came from and landed here. We feel like. Yeah, yeah. Well, here’s because you’re the you’re leading the charge. So I want, you know, the man and woman behind the curtain we want to see. Yeah.

00:24:50:11 – 00:25:23:04
NaTika Rowles
So I have a background in nonprofit on the Ely side of of running a nonprofit. So I was there with the nonprofit that we’re serving, and I think that’s where my passion comes in. I’ve been, you know, one of the leading the grassroots nonprofit writing grant up and I know. And so that’s my background. I have a husband, I have five children.

00:25:23:04 – 00:26:00:02
NaTika Rowles
And I think we we’ve been in Kansas City for about seven or eight years. My husband is from Kansas City. He’s been trying to get me here for the past 25 years of our work. And it finally happened. And it’s the best place ever. So, yeah, I just have a heart for community. I have a heart for community development in a way that citizens should be empowered right to to to change, to be the change makers in their community.

00:26:00:02 – 00:26:35:28
NaTika Rowles
So I try to interject that in any and everything I do and with the black community Fund, and I really can’t take that. You know, I really can’t sit here say, oh, yes, we’ve done all this work. But my board of directors, our board chair, I will name namedrop. Is that okay? Absolutely. Okay. So our board chair, Emmett Pearson Jr, who’s been on the board for years, is quite instrumental in the direction that Bishop has taken Desmond Bryant, who’s also been on the board as long if not as long as Emmett.

00:26:35:28 – 00:27:03:26
NaTika Rowles
He’s getting there. Huge influence on the direction of the fund and story. Shannon Barry and Dan Haley, that’s it is the Mighty Five, right? And with them, I’d say they allow me to kind of float around the city and see what we can put our hands into and find. Right. May not be a lot. I mean, we don’t have millions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:27:03:26 – 00:27:09:06
Ruth Baum Bigus
But don’t tell anyone that you will. You will as.

00:27:09:09 – 00:27:14:26
NaTika Rowles
Well. And we’ll look back on this podcast and go, yep, we spoke that, but you heard it.

00:27:14:26 – 00:27:36:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
Here first on KC Kurzweil. It’s it’s your 40th anniversary, which is monumental, if you think about it and what’s happened in that 40 years. Oh, my gosh. So much change. Probably you weren’t even born yet, but you’re leading that. And I can’t believe you have five kids and you’re doing this. Oh, my gosh. Kudos to you, Mama. You work.

00:27:36:03 – 00:27:54:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
And Mama, we are so grateful for your time. I want to remind everybody to go check out the Black Community Fund doing great work. So it’s black community fund dot org. And I’m sure Nautica would answer any question that you have. Thank you so much for your time.

00:27:55:01 – 00:27:57:00
NaTika Rowles
Thanks for having me, Ruth. It was fun.

00:27:57:25 – 00:28:20:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Yeah. Thank you for joining us. For KC Care’s Kansas City’s nonprofit voice were produced by Charitable Communications, also a nonprofit. This KC Care segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, www.kauffman.org. If you’d like to be a guest on KC Cares, please visit our Web site. kccaresonline.org and spread the love.

00:28:20:03 – 00:36:22:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
You can find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC Cares Radio and on Instagram at KC Cares online. Don’t forget, you can catch us on Saturday mornings at 8 p.m. on ESPN 15:10 a.m. and 94.5 FM. Thank you for joining us on KC CARES.

 

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visit them here: juneteenth-kc.com

 

What Nonprofit Questions are Answered?

  1. What is the history and significance of Juneteenth KC?
  2. How does Juneteenth KC contribute to community development and cultural preservation?
  3. What are the year-round activities organized by Juneteenth KC?
  4. How can one get involved or volunteer for Juneteenth KC?
  5. How has Juneteenth KC adapted and grown over the years, especially during the pandemic?

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Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

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Transcript:

(00:00)  KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and the profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this  KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Cottman Foundation www.coffman.org I’m Ruth Baum Bigus. Juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in this country following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation first celebrated in Texas Juneteenth got its name from the combination of June and 19th the date that Major General Gordon Granger issued the order proclaiming

(00:34) slaves freedom in the Lone Star State nearly 165 years later Juneteenth is still celebrated in a big way here in Kansas City It Was 1980 when Horace and Peterson III the founder of the black Archives of Mid-America Inc brought the idea of a Juneteenth Heritage celebration to fruition so what is Juneteenth Kansas City how does this major effort all come together well here to fill us in on all the details is Michaela Peterson who’s the program director for Kansas City’s celebration Makida thank you for

(01:07) carving out some time for us you are so busy with everything getting it all ready yeah no problem just a pleasure to be here today for sure to have this moment all right for folks that are not familiar what’s about what’s been going on in Kansas City share with us a little bit about what the landscape has looked like for Juneteenth year uh just over the last couple of years or are you saying like uh over this does this leave this this uh coming year well I would say over the past couple of years and and for as long as you’ve been

(01:42) involved okay yeah the Juneteenth KC organization has been hosting the celebration uh within the 18 Divine historic Jazz district for 12 years which uh historically has been a community festival with free events for the entire Community a youth kids zone Health Symposium features over 200 vendors from across the greater Kansas City area Social Service Partners and just really is a an event that tries really highlight Community organizations and social opportunities that you know positively positively promote

(02:19) African-American pride and culture you’ve got that down girl that sounds amazing there’s so much there so can you talk a little bit about the non-profit and how the beginnings of that came about and and how you all work to organize uh well yeah we started the well we started as a for-profit and basically we linked up with mentors and a couple of community leaders in Kansas City we identified the need to bring the celebrations back to Kansas City so you know we started hosting the festivals as just local organizers

(02:58) and then about five years in we switched gears and moved to more of a community setting that had the non-profit structure where you saw us working more where things were free open to the public and just really partnering with with Community Partners and corporate organizations to again highlight the juneteen celebration but offer community services and socialization opportunities for the community at large and so that’s now where we’ve grown down to the 12th year and you know we focus on the activities in June which is

(03:29) the Heritage Festival the cultural parade and some various events throughout the month of June but then as an organization we host activities throughout the year like First Fridays we have mobile distributions Community baby hours and other events as well that just really again support Community advancement progression and then also just any that also provide cultural perfect preservation and preservation and restoration I guess that was just more preservation you all make the ship it really is a 4 a for-profit

(04:05) organization so how did you do the shift and why did you make the shift well we didn’t make any money profit organization to do it that way and so we just I started with a non-profit background and just understood that you know you could find more support as hosting it as a non-profit organization and then it just was able to be able to utilize more Community Resources and Community Partners to help to host the effort and and and to also now provide more community services and Community platforms for for

(04:38) you know for alternate alternate programming opportunities I think it’s so interesting that that it’s not a cultural event from the standpoint of it’s not just come see paintings uh art music Etc you’ve really woven so much more into it was that always part of the plan of having Juneteenth really have a presence here in Kansas City uh I mean it just happens organically I would say just you know it just we are given opportunities to partner or just delve into different areas whether it’s just you know areas we’ve always

(05:21) been curious about or as you know the you know as the culture shifts and there’s more programming that is now available or accessible to we we’re able to kind of open up the opportunities as well and so you know we’ve just been able to pursue more engagement opportunities or just you know I guess pursue more ideas and not being limited by just you know having a stereotypical festival and and historically we’ve always wanted to be more than just a party while and we really use the festival

(05:53) background as you know the social element to bring in the educational programming I mean it’s a lot easier to kind of slip in the education versus feeding it down to everybody gotcha so a little bit about how everything is structured to make this incredible month of activities is not just one day happen I know you’re slipping stuff and taking stuff so do you have any help how does it work yeah we have a board of committee members that meet uh weekly to just plan Logistics and out and we have a strong body of volunteers we

(06:31) actually are blessed to have a lot of corporate volunteers but most of it is volunteer based or you know our board members are committing the time to help with planning Logistics and planning how we can make the celebration grow bigger and better every year we rely heavily on Community Partners to as well to provide information and also I’m not providing information about surprise support and you know whether that’s you know them assisting with marketing or you know they might have staff that can

(06:58) assist with leading various roles you know as part of the effort then you know we definitely will make those Partnerships and find ways to to balance out are so we know this year’s Festival the cheers Festival is on Saturday the 17th of June for somebody who’s never been there before what kinds of things are we going to see experience take part in uh we have two Community stages so we’ll have National acts on our main stage which is pokey bear and Sir Charles we have the family health and cooling

(07:38) center that is sponsored by Heartland Coca-Cola and we’ll have non-profit agencies that Health Partners inside of that is sponsored by the Missouri Department of my number the minority Health and Senior Services Department we also have Commerce Bank Target and other corporate organizations that’ll be inside there that will provide uh Community giveaways Beverages and cooling cooling items to kind of keep keep the community cool we’ll have a kid Zone with an interactive play area it’s

(08:13) free Pace face painters character artists we also have uh youth uh book distributions hosted by the Kansas City Public Library and turn the page KC we will also have a genealogy center hosted by black archives and American Incorporated where families can record their oral histories and then also they can learn more about how to start the journey to the genealogy history we’ll have an art gallery over 200 vendors just a ton of things very it’s really helpful just to download our mobile app

(08:44) or go onto our website juneteenthkc.com because we have so many events throughout the district it goes it starts with Community workouts and and lots of distributions and giveaways throughout the day that everyone as a community can look forward to and and take advantage of it and it’s all free and it’s in the 18th and Vine area the historic district down there correct we take over the entire 18th Divine historic Jazz District so it’s about 10 city blocks that are fully taken over with with special activities and things

(09:13) for the families to do now you’ve been involved since uh 12 years ago or so correct how have you seen things change has definitely changed over the last five years just due to the city now Federal you know this well the nation not federally recognizing Juneteenth there’s definitely been an uptick over the last couple years with people wanting to learn more do more now there’s even to a a requirement in a sense for corporations to do no more because it is a holiday so now they have to recognize it like every other holiday

(09:45) and especially like Fourth of July so you just have now seen you know a lot more organizations trying to find different ways to be a part to support and so it’s just exciting definitely as organizers of juneteen celebrations Across the Nation we’ve just seen it become more than just a community celebrations down become Regional and even National and to have the support of the community and those corporate sponsors is it’s great especially just because we’re all joining forces and we’re

(10:12) aligning resources to make the biggest impact possible I’m going to ask the fly on the wall question Juneteenth that does celebrate the emancipation of slavery why should someone who’s not African-American come to a juneteen celebration and what are we going to learn well I mean I think you said in the answer itself I mean it’s about the emancipation of slavery it doesn’t necessarily have to be the emancipation of black slavery I mean slavery has touched every continent every in every ethnicity across the globe so it’s more

(10:44) as if you believe in that people should be free then you should celebrate Juneteenth just like we would celebrate the Fourth of July or have been celebrating the Fourth of July even when we weren’t free I mean we as a nation we’ve always celebrated the liberation of White America from Great Britain and we celebrate the liberation of other ethnicities as well from other you know from us slavery we just as a community agree and I think everyone holistically agrees that slavery is a bad thing then you know it should be no one should be

(11:16) in slavery so if you believe that in the truest form then you really should have no problem with Juneteenth and I’m sorry if I infer that you that anybody would have a problem I guess you know that more so that this you know do we feel what another there’s a sense like oh is it you know are we all are we welcome you know or do we you know do we I know we’ve had questions or people kind of other other ethnicities have kind of shied away from it just feel like I feel like this is supposed to be our day and it’s like well no if you

(11:45) believe in in Freedom you know you should be celebrating just as a general you know as again we sell them but just like I have no qualms with the Fourth of July I’ve just been celebrating this at Birth because you’re right we should be free you know everyone should be free and have access to Liberties and as an American and the we are African-American and so just celebrating our day of Liberation is just another another way for us to celebrate as a nation that we do not believe in that people should be you know in bondage

(12:14) I love that and I love how you’ve been able to take advantage as Juneteenth moved through now as a Federal holiday to go for those resources that’s something sometimes non-profits forget that there is stuff out there that you can go look for and and you all have been able to do that and incorporate that what’s your favorite part of the whole festival or are you just glad when it’s over and you can put your feet up and don’t have to run around I’m pretty much glad when it’s over the kids own

(12:42) the Kid Zone stuff is always great to us as the mission of our organization is really to impact you know Child Development and it always happens at a young age from you know birth to five so that’s why many of the events that we do we focus on free youth activities free things for families to do so you can engage and you know you know they can start to make that connection at a you know a positive connection to community at Young ages so you know any time that we’re able to really an action or see our kiddos enjoying

(13:15) and into their own community and not you know parents feeling it like their kids aren’t safe if they’re you know running up the street or their kid you know that they have to watch their kids every every second and uh the district really shifts and everyone really looks out for each other and kids are comfortable families are comfortable down there and that’s that’s the real goal is just to normalize that sense of community and that sense of coming together and making that something that our

(13:38) kids see because again our kids are exposed to a lot of traumatic things at this point especially as our our country kind of continues to seemingly spiral so you know whatever we can do to kind of show them what normal you know activities look like or things especially when we you know that’s what was my inspiration is you know things that when we grew up with a kid as a kids that were normal that was healthy like okay you can ride your bike down the street or you can have those Community picnics and you know those

(14:05) things and and and uh and have that sense of community it’s really important especially as we again as we as we go into these difficult more and more difficult times those those moments that we’re able to offer to to our kids that are invaluable wouldn’t it be great if we could all do that just send our kids out on a bike go play at the park something for everybody to strive to return to some sense of whatever normal is right I’m curious what did you all do during the pandemic because so much of

(14:39) it’s outside well yeah so the first year we we did virtual I mean it was very successful we had a virtual celebration we were probably the only people that we probably were the first ones to do it uh to try to go ahead and do virtual programming and engage it to the level we did and it was successful that’s probably where we really exploded online because people were really you know we’re stuck at home looking for ways to learn and engage and then after the first year we were you know it was we were able to go

(15:10) Outdoors so we were able to really kind of Thrive to be the first activities where people could go into open air activities and just really kind of you know still stress the education we did covid vaccinations and education on preventative care and and did a lot more resource distributions during that point in time a lot of our mobile distributions were heavier during the covered years where we were seeing numbers of you know three to five to 500 families and one event that we’re getting on-site services and meaning you

(15:39) know you know just needing support because it you know the families weren’t working and and things were shut down completely so we were able to kind of step in and be a support system and then in that capacity and then still provide you know we provide online learning for our kiddos and workshops and books that kiddos can do activities with online and just really try to find ways that families can continue to celebrate at home or even find ways that they could find a release from you know what was going on with being in lockdown and

(16:11) all of that what did you take from pandemic that is kind of now stuck with Juneteenth as it is today what we call a pandemic pivot lesson I mean you did I mean I guess the biggest lesson I mean we definitely try to stay ahead and we try to stay you know be being creative I mean with everyone Zoom I mean it’s always going to be a new asset and tool for everybody but I think we found ways to try to bring in our audience that wasn’t in Kansas City or ways that people could take the experience back home with them or you’ll

(16:51) still utilize our website our website is actually a really great resources for people to learn connect and even take those pieces and then get you know incorporate within their own you know celebrations or their own educational programming so we really it’s been a lot we’ve been we do invest a lot in our website and in our in our mobile even our mobile app that we have available now just to really try to get people to be able to engage as much as possible and however they wish whether it’s a workshop whether it’s being a

(17:23) speaker or or just tuning in and even this year with the parade we were able to partner with khp 41 to live stream it from home so everyone’s really able to watch it and see it and not have to you know be right you know smack dab and 18th and Vine so I think those things you know we’ve learned you know just just to stay flexible and not allow I guess a difficult situation to you know causes to shut down shop you know we can you know we can definitely become you know we can be agile and adapt and you know our ability to adapt

(17:58) and just really focus on you know what way we can impact and support the community the best way possible is the goals and what we’ve really stayed focused on and try to stay true to we’re talking with Michaela Peterson who is in charge of everything I think for Juneteenth she is Juneteenth what kind of things do you focus on when it’s not celebration time when we move July August and the rest of the year how how does the organization then stay relevant and involved in the community uh well we host the First Friday’s

(18:35) events in the Jazz District so that is our organization to hosting those kind of smaller scale Community social activities vendor events where they can able to connect with social service providers Community organizations we also host quarterly mobile distributions or Community baby shower events we partner with Children’s Mercy Hospital and cribs for kids to do safe sleep training as well so we provide pack and play assistance to families in need mothers in need with a child two years or younger can attend our training courses

(19:12) before the home to promote safe sleep activities uh we also do our uh we now do a two-year initiative which is our Housing Initiative our Housing Initiative is in partnership with Arvest Bank Reese Nichols and also now U.S Bank to offer home ownership workshops that promote or sorry that support a family’s transition into home ownership and just really offering introductory courses that talk about how to start the process to homeownership credit cleanup how to start your own bank account

(19:47) just different levels of financial literacy components but also tied directly to also home ownership components and and education so one hour is the homeownership education and the second hour is financial literacy we wrap that all up into also doing giveaways and hygiene hygiene product and resource distribution just to support the everyday kind of household support items to kind of guide a family’s process along the way and then we also offer uh we also offer family that completes at least three workshops a

(20:26) trip to the florist Furnishings program which is a great project program here in Kansas City that provides Furnishings for the whole family from top to bottom so we use that as a way to kind of you know keep families engaged throughout the process let them know that they have a support system but then also kind of too as they’re moving into their new home or they’re moving into their new apartment if it’s not you know that new home at that point we could also kind of you know save that cost in furniture and

(20:51) household Supply items by signing up a family to do that and just you know Finding ways that we can limit you know eliminate barriers or balance out you know any kind of stressors that the financial stretches that might be happening with the family and and you know kind of blending Resources with our Community Partners as well such a holistic approach to things you know that maybe folks would not associate with a a Heritage Culture Festival right doing these things year round and you really dip into the

(21:23) community I know when I was there last year last summer even though it was very hot it was a lot of fun and there was so much available by way of different non-profits how do you cultivate folks to come and be part of the heritage festival and then your other programs well we typically we do have a lot of Community Partners that we reach out to just just regularly that is even have either been on site at our events or have reached out you know just definitely just have reached out and said hey they want to get involved and

(21:51) learn more I mean we we definitely open our our table to any any Community partner that wants to serve and just you know it is open to serving and and uh well also too we have ours our General application so when we have community events you know you can definitely just come in as a sort of like a you know a general application and typically what we’ll do too is we’ll reach out to those Health service providers that we see and we recognize say Hey you know if you want to come back next month we we

(22:19) more often than not we’ll waive their fees and just say hey you know we don’t necessarily care about the vendor fee if you want to come if you can provide a service you know if you provide a service or you bring something to distribute you know on site with this we waive the fee or find whatever way possible to make you know that yeah I guess making you know enticing for that partner to come in but we definitely we definitely creatively partner with a lot of different partners from across the Spectrum

(22:46) we now obviously are doing Partnerships with like the Royals and the Urban Youth Academy uh we partner very closely with Kansas City Public School District in the city of Kansas City itself and also just several Community organizations like the library Turn the Page Boys and Girls Club canby’s urban community connections I mean that’s probably the one thing I think our organization really tries to you know try to do is you know we don’t want to be the only one in the room you know we really want to partner and collaborate

(23:15) as much as we can so that you know when our our attendees come they’re getting as much as they can within an exposure to to as many organizations they can so they can make connections they can Network and really continue that relationship you know we want you to continue to work with these organizations exchange numbers realize you know to how to stay on top of these organizations too that you’re not you know the squeaky oil the squeaky wheel is the one that gets oil you know you don’t follow up let them

(23:43) know you’re still interested in Services and teaching you know our our constituents too how to continue to build relationships with these organizations because a lot of these organizations you know if you if you connect with them correctly you know they’ll partner with you for life and continue to connect you with great people even if even if you know your pastor you know they’re quote unquote the parameters of the program most organizations especially if you’re engaged and they know that you’re a

(24:10) family or an individual that’s really trying you know to do the best that you can they’ll find another partner that will fill that Gap now to say hey well Taylor you’ve aged out but here’s another partner that now does that and you know they’ll be the intermediary they’ll help you with that so we want to be that agency to really promote that teach families how to continue to build their relationship and keep the relationships going too like just because again an organization doesn’t mean you can’t come

(24:37) back you know and I think that’s one thing it’s a continued resource you said you started your career in non-profits did you ever think you were going to be running the huge metro area huge celebration in programming uh no I I mean I didn’t think so I mean I guess I had goals I mean I I you know uh I had envisioned myself to hopefully be doing you know work with Juneteenth my my father was a Horace Peterson III so he’s the founder of the you know of course [Music] to Kansas City and so you know there’s always been

(25:17) that natural you know pull to to to to to continue his work and you know I just luckily had a wonderful Mentor by the name of Benny Shelby and other mentors that have kind of guided me along the way through you know City officials or other mentors that have been able to kind of to groom me because again we don’t all get here uh anyway so Jeff groom but also just you know to support and and to be a listening ear I mean and and I I think we all knew at the very beginning it wasn’t going to be a quick project

(25:51) you know I think one thing that a lot of people in Kansas City and a lot of organizations need to unders could benefit from understanding is that you know it takes a long it takes time it takes time effort effort and even effort after failure you know it doesn’t always go right the first day you just gotta keep at it and be willing to invest the time it took us 12 years to get here and we’re just now getting to that point and I think you know now you see a lot more people say oh I want to you know I

(26:24) want to do it I want to you know have this huge festival and it’s okay just cry before you walk do your research and understand that it just it really doesn’t happen overnight especially you know it took us a long time a lot of money lost like luckily now and again we’ve had mentors that were able to help put bills or help to find creative resources because we we lost a lot of money in the beginning and again now we’re at a point where we have a model that we’re able to duplicate and really have the support behind it

(26:55) now too as well so so so yeah that that that’s what that’s probably my Tuesday I thought there was a little tie there with Peterson Peterson so uh how cool yeah but how cool that is what a family Legacy you know and and carrying on and that’s that’s wonderful to have that and and to have that in our community with a big celebration because you don’t always have that so kudos to you all so anybody who’s interested in volunteering or or finding out more about what you’re doing again website is that our best bet yeah

(27:31) website is amazing it’s the juneteenthkc.com and it’s stay right now it’s gonna basically look festival-ish because with everything we got going on the June it’ll really be juneteen focused and then after the month of June it basically will base the it will switch over to more of our non-profits our social service side to feature those activities that are kind of our year-round activities our mobile app as well is going to be an amazing resource because it’ll connect you to Our Community Partners

(27:57) year-round and also activities that are going around across the city and it’ll just allow you to find things stay connected but those both of those will be great and then we’re always looking for volunteers so on our website if you just click the get involved tab you’re able to connect instantly to Mo to most of our projects throughout the year Michaela thank you so much for taking time of which you had very little so we’re so grateful and we we wish the best success for this year’s Juneteenth and of the

(28:26) ongoing program so thank you so much oh no problem I really really appreciate it I know I’m hard to nail down uh but I appreciate your flexibility and the opportunity because this is a great opportunity to share our mission our message and I look forward to seeing everybody and even you at Juneteenth and I just hope everyone the best success in their Endeavors as they run their own organizations or look to building their own thank you for joining us for  KC cares Kansas City’s non-pro profit voice

(28:55) produced by charitable Communications and this segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.Kauffman.org spread the love and find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares radio and Instagram  KC cares online and don’t forget you can catch us on Saturday mornings at 8 A.

(29:13) M on ESPN 15 10 a.m and 94.5 FM thank you for joining us on KC cares [Music]

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Global Ballers Foundation Sean Birdsong

May 12, 2023

Sean Birdsong | Founder

In this KC Cares interview, we speak with Sean Birdsong, founder of the Global Ballers Foundation. A former professional basketball player and son of an NBA player, Birdsong created the foundation to provide kids with educational tools beyond the classroom. The foundation hosts sports clinics and camps that teach life skills, using sports as a platform to address careers, mental and physical health, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and social awareness. Birdsong’s organization also educates parents about the pressures they may inadvertently put on their children in sports. Despite funding challenges, the foundation has been involved in events with the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers, providing free opportunities for kids whose parents may not afford standard basketball camps. Birdsong’s commitment to helping youth reflects his personal journey in sports and his belief in life beyond sports.

visit them here: american-ballers.com

 

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Take risks. Own success. Be Uncommon.

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Transcript:

(00:00) KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.Kauffman.org I’m Ruth Baum Biggus for Sean Birdsong Sports has been his life the son of an NBA player Sean started playing basketball at a young age ultimately competing on the court in college as well as professionally in the Continental Basketball Association in the Premier basketball league while many

(00:31) kids love sports few make it to the level Shawn has experienced and knowing the transformative nature of sports Sean saw that participation can mean so much more for kids so with a commitment to help youth excel at every level he created American Ballers and its non-profit arm the global Ballers Foundation providing kids with Educational Tools that they don’t get in any classroom setting the foundation hosts a variety of sporting clinics and camps providing a dose of life skills while kids play the sports they love

(01:02) Sean is joining us today to talk about his efforts and his journey to help kids become the best humans that they can be and we’re so lucky to have Sean with us welcome to KC cares good morning roof how are you doing I’m doing great and it’s so good to see you outside of a coffee shop right right that was a very good coffee shop by the way yeah we’ll put in a plug there for robo cup Sean let’s talk a little bit about your journey in sports I alluded to it of course in our introduction but I want

(01:33) our audience to really know where you come from and that we can talk about the passion that you’ve used to create your foundation uh thank you for having me this morning again um I come from a I would say very rich education background as well as Sports background um my my mother was an educator Candace Birdsong for 30 years in the Kansas City Kansas School District and my father was a NBA player Elvis Birdsong played 12 years in the NBA so I grew up basically having basketball and education really at the Forefront since I was a baby

(02:15) um my younger brother and I Sydney we of course played various sports soccer um football baseball outside with the friends but basketball was really a center part of uh us both growing up you didn’t have quote the normal upbringing though and I wanted to talk a little bit about that being the son of a professional athlete how how did that balance at home you had a mom who was an educator and then you have a pro athlete how did they create a balance and share with you what they felt were really the important life lessons

(02:53) well it’s a great question it was very unique uh situation um I do know you know I remember the last few years of my dad’s playing career in New Jersey so I was born in New Jersey um when he was playing with the Nets my mother and my father met here in Kansas City when he was playing with the Kansas City Kings so I believe 1981 um when he his contract was up with Kansas City and he signed his free agent to New Jersey they moved to New Jersey um I was born two years later and I just remember um you know that last year in New Jersey

(03:30) from my memory um you know just players coming over to the house or us going over players house me going to the Meadowlands Arena um down in East Rutherford New Jersey going being in the locker room you know with a lot of those guys coming in and out um opponents you know Michael Jordan and Magic and all of those guys so I think um growing up around that I didn’t really understand that it was anything special I guess you can say um it was just normal to me um but also I remember my mother um being you know later on we got a

(04:03) little older you know she just really has always been a hard worker um and not really just your so-called NBA wife stay-at-home mother um she did take a few years off you know to to raise of course my younger brother myself but I do remember vividly later on those last few years um from my dad’s career she got out there and was like Hey I’m you know I’m gonna do a part-time thing I’m gonna go out and teach and I’m gonna go get out the house and do things like that so that work ethic um from him playing basketball and my

(04:32) mother um also being a teacher and all of that that really kind of shaped at that time the way I was thinking about okay we’re in the school but we also going to the arena we’re going to school and all of that so that was a that was an awesome experience um during that time and then also you know his last year in Boston you know I remember when he he left New Jersey um and signed with the Celtics his last year I remember you know us going to Boston and and being up there you know with with Larry Bird and uh Robert

(05:04) Parish and Kevin McHale and Dennis Johnson all those guys like that was that was a good experience within itself because again I was a young kid didn’t understand the rich tradition of the Boston Celtics but as I got older and I looked back on it I was like wow like I was really in the locker room and you know in a a team meeting with you know Jimmy Rogers at the time who was the head coach um drawing up plays and things like that and me and you know my young Brothers running around with balls and things

(05:30) like that um that was a that was a cool situation as well I I think there’s a movie here but I digress be an interesting movie great idea yeah yeah a peek into the locker room but you yourself excelled in sports it through high school and and then you went into the college experience and then into the the pro ranks yourself so at what point did you make a decision of this is just it’s more than just playing the sport how did that come about for you um my senior year in high school and not too many people know this story a lot of

(06:12) a few people who are around the situation know the story but not too many people know the story so um in high school you know for a few years there I struggled with you know uh grades and things like that and one year in particular you know from my freshman year going into my sophomore year I was ineligible um the first five games of playing basketball because I you know at Bonner Springs High School where I attended the grade system was abcf there were no D’s math was always a struggle for me um and I think I believe it was a

(06:43) Spanish class of a struggle for me so I unfortunately you know if you failed I believe was either two or three at the time you couldn’t play the next the next semester so I actually had to sit out and I think sitting out um during that time and actually looking observant like okay this is really more than basketball because if you don’t get your grades if you if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do off the court you really can not play the game that you love to play so going through those

(07:08) situations in my senior year I broke my foot um seven games into the season that and I was lost for the season I was really a wake-up call um I believe I had UMKC New Mexico University um Indiana State University Kansas when coach Roy Williams was there I was getting a lot of letters and a lot of you know calls and things like that going into my senior year that was also a wake-up call to work you know I broke my foot and I had to transition um and and think about okay this is really the second time that basketball

(07:42) has been taken away from me so at that moment my senior year I remember like was yesterday I was really sitting in my room and I was like you know if basketball doesn’t work out I really have to start looking towards the future and I was when I was 17 years old so um after those situations I had to go you know Juco um played at Highland Community College for two years and then after that I fortunately was able to get a scholarship um to Lincoln University HBCU in Jefferson City Missouri NCAA school played there

(08:14) um and that was a a great situation itself um but it was just really the grind of trying to get you know back you know unless you’ve you know to the viewers um having to go through the Juco ranks and then try to fight your way back to go to an NCAA level type type experience it can really take a mental toll on you and I even experienced that going into uh the CBA um that that first year after I left Lincoln University as well as as far as the mental toll um in the minor leagues you know playing professionally

(08:53) um having coaches tell you that if you have a couple bad games you may get sent home you know that was a daily reminder to us all of us in practice the minority level hey there’s no guaranteed contracts here that’s the NBA level um but if you guys aren’t playing up to par we can send you guys home and bring other guys in that was the reality of always trying to be on your toes since I broke my foot in high school so how and where did you get support you knew that there had to be something I guess to fall back on or continue your

(09:29) life I mean you’re a young person at that point what swooped in to support and help you um during my high school years I basically have course um and I say of course because I know a lot of kids aren’t fortunate to have it but that was my reality uh when I say of course you know my mother um you know my dad even though they had gotten a divorce um when after he retired he was still involved um you know in our in our lives and my mother um was was our was a teacher I mean she was she understood what we were dealing

(10:03) with and my uncle you know my Uncle Mike Iman Sandy and a lot of my grandmother at the time when she was alive um here like I had a I had a support system from grandparents uncles um aunts and and of course my mom but um also AAU coaches you know we had Au coaches that also would tell us the reason why I have you guys here in the gym on a Friday night and a Saturday night is to not have you guys in the streets you know because we honestly have even though I played at Bonner Springs and my mother she was really um

(10:32) she was really Savvy you know she’s from KCK and she was seven she told me this when we were she’s like listen yeah you’re out here in school at Bonner to get a good education and and graduate but if you’re gonna play basketball you need to learn how to play with multiple players like from all backgrounds and all walks of life so she put us into AAU team in Kansas City Missouri with you know you had um coach Al Collins who coached you know or Watson NBA great um Jaron Rush Kareem Rush uh Brandon

(11:03) Rush and Malcolm Campbell and Jeff Hawkins and Wayne Simmons a lot of guys that came through um The Running Rebels in Kansas city so we were a part of that for like three years and we got exposure um to go to Las Vegas to go to Los Angeles but Gail Collins and also Al Collins who are our coaches would say you know always keep God first that’s really what we were um you know that was really our influence as far as hey same thing you get injured you tomorrow’s not promised you know keep him first uh go forward in

(11:36) in everything that you do um and everything will be great that was the kind of support system we had growing up so let’s look at those trials and tribulations from breaking my foot and then the the grind in college and then going into the CBA and all of that I always had those that you know those those people in my mind as far as what I went back to um you know when I was younger so let’s fast forward this is your life experience how did you then put American Ballers and your foundation together and and

(12:11) what is it that you want to or want to accomplish with it so after I finished playing a buddy of mine um Mike Copeland he actually worked at a place kvc it’s a behavioral health care center and he told me about you know he you know giving back to kids and they were going these outings and mentorship and all of that to young kids so he said hey this may be something that you might want to go into and look into man it’s really it’s really cool you know giving back to the kids and all that so went there and I actually you know

(12:46) interacting with those kids had a different mindset seeing the struggles that they had um of course I was interested in doing that based on the fact that my family were Educators so giving back to the kids in that way and understanding where they come from where there was traumas and things like that that opened my eyes to a lot of the reason why kids act the way they do and the reason why honestly a lot of adults may act the way they do as far as their upbringing so with me being involved in basketball camps and Clinics after I finished

(13:17) playing I’ve worked with the Dallas Mavericks for a few years doing skill development with their youth um youth events and then also that led to me being a part of the NBA assistant coaches program um in New York City to where they the NBA prepares you to coach if you want to on the NBA and NBA G league so I’ll coach combines and things like that in New York City with a lot of Hall of Famer you know Paul Silas former great um NBA player Hall of Famer George Lynch Rex Walters former Kansas player a lot

(13:48) of these guys that were getting into coaching I was in the room with these guys and just picking their brain and listening to them so doing that helping the Dallas Mavericks being involved in other camps um hearing the kids stories at these camps were kind of touching to the to where it was well we we play the game of sports um whether it’s basketball football and then we go home to our home lives whether it’s mother or mother’s there with boyfriend you know boyfriend smokes marijuana um I’m seeing this abuse I’m seeing this

(14:20) it was almost like wow so you guys are some really smart kids but you’re going home to this kind of home life that is like a distraction so in 2000 18 um I had the idea to kind of start my own um I guess you could say camps and Clinics as far as the non-profit side goes to really give back to the kids like okay instead of us giving you know t-shirts and just saying hey stay in school don’t do drugs which is what we grew up on how about we do a little bit more and like try to add to this to really like try to

(14:56) change um the lives of these kids we’re talking with Sean bird song American Ballers and his non-profit Global Ballers Foundation so how does this work and how do you infuse in this let’s say two-hour session that you’ve got with kiddos some who are coming in with home life that are let’s say less than ideal how do you put both things together so they can walk out of there and maybe have a little bit of change with both skills both skills that’s a great question well a lot of people they look at

(15:33) professional athletes whether in the NFL or NBA as okay they’re superheroes sometimes fans forget that these guys and women and WNBA that they’re human they have ordinary problems just like everybody else um you just happen to see the glitz and the glamor on TV but these you know individuals do have issues as far as anything anything that that you can probably think of but um 2018 when I started it I wanted to purposely bring in NBA and WBA players um to come and talk to the kids to say Hey you definitely can make it but these

(16:09) are the steps that you’re going to have to take so I just got on the phone with my with my resources fortunately I had resources growing up to reach out to different players and all of that so you know I would say hey I’m doing this basketball clinic or this Camp would love for you to come in be like a mentor to these kids of course teach basketball skills but we want to talk about life um and education off of the court and our first event was with the Brooklyn Nets organization in New York City brought my

(16:36) father in and brought former NBA All-Star um Michael Ray Richardson in also played with the Knicks and the Nets and it was a great event we had about maybe 80 70 to 80 kids from the New York City area come out to the Barclay Center the you know the Brooklyn Nets they laid it out for us um and we were able to have it at their practice facility which was all awesome the kids loved it and that was really the start of getting this ball going um the Los Angeles Lakers were next in that you know with a great um Keisha Nix

(17:05) you know vice president over there at the Lakers and Miss Linda Rambis um whose wife of former NBA player and Laker Kurt Rambis you know she invited me out there was like hey we like what you’re doing with American Ballers we love you to come up here and talk to these kids and all that so after that you know we did events with Orlando Magic and then um and then we went to Houston and this this has been rolling since then but we I bring in these guys and gals to talk to the kids about education but also what to do in the community

(17:38) um our five pillars for American Ballers and the global bars Foundation are careers Health which is your mental health could be physical health um Finance you know financial literacy is heavy entrepreneurship and also social awareness which is your drug and alcohol prevention and also policing um in in communities how to interact with the police and when we’re in Houston when we first brought in an individual from from the police department previously back in 2020.

(18:10) um it was the first time that I saw you know when the police asked hey how many of you guys know a cop or you know how many of you guys you know interact with police or how many of you guys are scared of police and when they ask the question of how many guys you scare the police you know a lot of the kids like raise their hand because they only see the negative side of policing well my grandfather was a policeman you know growing up and my you know I have cousins who were Sheriff so I saw the other side of the law as far as okay

(18:41) I know that there are are good cops out there um trying to do the right thing so we just try to bring that awareness to the kids um in all of these topics that we discuss with them at these clinics how many clinics are you doing I mean are they every month are they and and where and how do you choose the kiddos that get to participate great question so we reach out to the community um so the high schools middle schools um our ages are 8 to 17 but we try to more so for the education part you know we don’t turn the kids down but for the

(19:14) education probably really try to talk to the middle school and high school kids because they’re the kids that’s the age group that’s really about to go into college if they want to or if they leave cop if they leave High School excuse me and they’re going into a trade you know some of them may not want to go to college we understand that but they’re at the age to where they can really understand hey I’m going to start working you know I’m going to start getting a part-time job and start

(19:35) worrying about my finances um and and also you know those kind of saving type habits um so we just reach out to different um organizations and say hey we’re providing this this camper Clinic would love to to bring this to your students and it’s been it’s been great I mean we’ve we started out doing one clinic or two clinics a year starting out and then covet hit um but that was was a different situation within itself but fortunately you know we held clinics to where we kept our masks on and then also we had a

(20:10) few clinics to where Tiffany Hayes he’s a WNBA player with the Atlanta Dream she was like hey Sean this is great you know I know that the city I believe the city of Atlanta at the time wasn’t fully open yet I don’t believe um but I think parts of parts of the city was um and she had her own gym so she was like hey we can host it here at my gym and we brought kids from Atlanta out and she brought um Dwayne bacon he was the guest speaker he was he was the current player with the Charlotte Hornets at the

(20:39) time he’s now overseas playing but he came and talked to the kids so we try to get about one a month um upcoming this year we’re looking at about five in July alone so we’ve been picking up um yes we’ve been picking up a lot um of Buzz and actually have had people calling us hey we heard about Ballers we like to get you guys involved with with our organization here or you mind coming out here so I’m very very proud about where we’re headed as an organization why did you decide to create a

(21:12) non-profit arm when you already kind of had a gig going why did you decide then well we need a foundation we need to to have that be part of this that’s a great question so unfortunately in you know certain communities of of color um kids are able to afford your standard basketball camp you know and I’m not gonna you know go down the list of players who put on camps every year but they’re you know some of these teams organizations um rightfully so you know it’s a it is a business um they charge x amount of dollars for

(21:47) kids to come in and go to the camps well there are some kids that love to play basketball love to play football but their parents just can’t afford to pay for a basketball camp um so when I got you know the idea of hey we can give back in a different way these kids still deserve to have a right to an education have a right to um top quality athletes you know I’m fortunate to bring in Hall of Fame basketball players and Hall of Fame football players and it’s free for the kids you know so I don’t want to say It’s A disruption to

(22:21) what everybody else is kind of doing but it’s kind of like hey this is what I want to offer to the kids because we know that their parents um can’t afford to it but we still want to give back the same knowledge and you know we want to make it a fair we want to make it an even even playing field across the board whether you can pay for it clinic or you can’t pay for a clinic so by having the non-profits you could raise funds and then underwrite costs for kiddos who who couldn’t come exactly any other way and do that and I I want

(22:52) to be sure to share with our audience too he’s not just doing the foundation is not just doing basketball they’re in all kinds of sports you were recently part of the NFL draft so it sounds like you’re using Sports all together not just basketball yes and our our company 83 Ventures you know I was born in 1983 so that’s where I got the concept um under 83 Ventures we have American Ballers beyond the court which is our you know podcast that we started when covet hit a lot of former players you

(23:28) know Rick Barry Hall of Famer Marcus Johnson Hall of Fame Rogers Gilmore a lot of these guys George Gervin you know at the time we’re like hey we really don’t want to uh you know get on a plane right now totally understandable but you know hey let’s we can have a dialogue and we can still get a message across um via online okay that’s that’s even better so that’s when we started that um nothing but net Sports was our training business is really what we how we train kids and whether it’s um

(23:55) physical fitness basketball cleaners camps things like that and then American ballers in the gold bars Foundation so we we pretty much try to really give back um to the youth um on a variety of ways as well as parents we try to educate parents and I try to bring in professionals from the community um to talk about you know whether it’s mental health um whether it’s you know talking to the parents about not being too hard on your on your son or daughter is just a game you know we always get thrown out the

(24:27) sports mom or Sports dad but if you’ve never really lived it a lot of these parents unfortunately don’t understand that when you put pressure on your kids to play a sport or to do anything really you’re kind of steering them away from what you want them to do they’re going to back off of it and they may um you know if you’re writing a kid saying hey you need to get up and do this do this and they really don’t want to by the time the refreshment of sophomore in high school they’re

(24:52) probably just going to quit and we’ve seen that before so we try to talk to the parents as well as not really trying to tell them how to parent but when it comes to the sports thing it’s like hey we know we’ve seen this before it’s like back off a little bit let them enjoy the game um let them enjoy school let them enjoy the the things that that we all enjoy don’t try to push them too hard great great advice what’s the best place for our audience to go check out what you’re doing with the foundation and

(25:20) overall your website yes our website is uh American slash baller so that’s American minus signballers.com and also um Instagram I’m at the Sean bird song on Instagram and also our LinkedIn um Sean Burson on LinkedIn running the non-profit component of your activities what’s the greatest challenge that you face the greatest challenge I face oh besides raising money well there you go raising money so so uh any tips for anybody or how can they support you I was going to say it’s an opportunity for volunteers to work with

(26:04) you in any fashion well and I say I say that’s one of them one of the the problems were you know or is to raise money but I’m really particular in who we involve and that’s where I I guess that’s kind of a struggle because I’m not a person I’ve never I was never raised this way to just hey go try to seek um funding for an organization from anybody the one thing that I told the players when I first started American balls is hey are you guys involved with kids everybody who’s been involved in

(26:34) American Ballers and you can look at our website um the players have been involved they either all have a foundation they either all have kids themselves or they’re involved in some type of basketball component or education component I never want to just bring in anybody to just tell the kids a different message or a wrong message who aren’t really invested and that’s kind of the approach that I have when it comes to fundraising and the non-profit world I want to align myself um you know with people who want to give

(27:03) back to the community who want to service the community and of course who like who like sports but also see that there’s life beyond Sports um so many times in the world now there’s a lot of stuff going on but we try to I try to get across if we as a as a society put more into the kids I think in my opinion the world would be a better place because the kids are the Next Generation coming up who are going to take care of us but what we see is so many adults trying to take care of other adults which I understand it but if we invested that

(27:42) much money into the the younger generation I think it would be a a better place you know I think you know Charles Barkley I’m not sure if you watch um Inside the NBA or not um on TNT but Giannis antetokupo from the Milwaukee Bucks had a great great um line after the game that they they lost um to get eliminated in the playoffs and it was going around you know it went viral he was basically trying to report her when he asked him it’s like do you view this season as a failure he was like why would I view this season as a

(28:14) failure it was like first of all I’m in the NBA he’s like we are champions he said but there’s steps to the process you know he said you look at your job as a failure if you don’t get promoted every every couple years you know do you you look at yourself in the mirror and say hey I’m a failure because I know I got promoted last or three years ago but I haven’t gotten promoted in a few years so everything you’ve done up to that point is a failure no and I love when Charles Barkley made the analogy of hey

(28:37) teachers are the real are the real you know people who aren’t failures like they’re the real success stories it’s not really professional athletes I mean yes we got to a certain point my father got to a certain point there’s many guys who got to that point but after the playing days are gone what’s the next step and so many of us athletes we understand that we know that but I think that needs to be talked about more just in society as yes this is a great game whether it’s football or basketball

(29:08) um but we need to start investing in education investing in the youth coming up because they’re going to be where we are in a few years Sean Birdsong you are a wise Soul we want to send our audience again to American Dash ballers.com to check out what their non-profit is doing helping youth use sports but learn those life lessons thank you so much for sharing thank you I appreciate you for having me on and you’re doing great things in the you know Community as well I got a chance to be with you um at the 120th celebration

(29:45) um at JFS uh you know a while back so you got you guys you know keep up the great work and I appreciate you having me you betcha thank you for joining us on KC cares Kansas City’s nonprofit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications also a non-profit this KC cares segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation www.kauffman.

(30:07) org well to be a guest on KC cares find all of our episodes visit our website kckersonline.org spread the love you can find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares radio and Instagram or at KC cares online and catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 15 10 a.m and 94.5 FM at 8 A.M thanks for joining us on KC cares [Music]

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Parade of Hearts Kansas City

May 4, 2023

Eileen Weir | Committee Chair

In this KC Cares interview, we speak with Eileen Weir, former mayor of Independence and community engagement committee chair for the Parade of Hearts initiative in Kansas City. Launched in 2022, the Parade of Hearts is a public art project featuring large, three-dimensional hearts designed by local artists, displayed throughout the city, and later auctioned to benefit local charities. The initiative aims to bring communities together post-pandemic and celebrate the region’s diversity. The 2023 edition features 40 hearts, with proceeds benefiting the University of Kansas Health System, the Children’s Miracle Network, the artist community, and The Family Conservancy. The initiative has encouraged exploration of the city and provided a platform for local artists. Despite not being intended as a long-term annual event, due to its positive impact, the Parade of Hearts will continue for a few more years with plans to expand in 2024

visit them here: https://theparadeofhearts.com/

 

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Transcript:

(00:00) voice and we’re telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them KC cares is the intersection of the non-profit and profit communities making Kansas City a better place to live work and play this KC care segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation www.kauffman.

(00:20) org the coveted pandemic was such a trying time in so many ways we looked for anything to brighten our days as the Health crisis just drug on well in 2022 one of the bright spots in Kansas city was the appearance of 156 five foot five inch three-dimensional Hearts uniquely designed by local artists these Hearts popped up all over the metro and eventually were auctioned with proceeds benefiting local charities the parade of Hearts has helped our region become stronger to say the least these Lively sculptures captured our hearts and

(00:56) they’re back this Year’s parade of Hearts features 40 Hearts scattered throughout the metro and among those who’ve been involved from the get-go is Eileen Weir the former mayor of independence with her leadership as the community engagement committee chair Eileen is at the Forefront of this year’s effort pulling in all aspects of our community how does she do it well let’s find out because Eileen is joining us today Eileen it’s so great great to have you oh it’s great to be here it’s

(01:23) good to see you again the same here so I I have to own up I’ve had uh connections with Eileen and her official elected capacity and I little did I know you had this whole background thing going on you’re a lady that does incredible things including jumping out of planes and skydiving onto the Presidential Library Lawns and everything else so we appreciate the time but talk a little bit about how you became engaged with parade of Hearts okay well um it’s a very interesting story and uh yeah I’ve had a very interesting life

(02:06) and career so um there’s a lot to talk about um so when I was mayor of Independence the parade of Hearts public art experience was launched and um it was presented as you know this was going to be a regional event that was to celebrate you know all of the communities within our region through this public art experience um and I was also at the time serving on the board for Arts KC our regional Arts Council so Arts KC was involved as well so I kind of was involved in in a couple of different ways so parade of Parts was

(02:53) the idea actually went back several years and then because of covert it got put on hold and then you know as we were coming out of covid uh starting to come out of cobit the idea of resurfaced to say why don’t we go ahead and and and try this out as a way to really recover from covid uh we had been so disjointed so isolated that it was you know really presented as a way to bring our communities back together and not only the pandemic but also an enormous amount of other types of civil unrest um were certainly happening politically

(03:40) um racially civically there were it was a it was a hard and and dark and difficult time so it was it’s really to celebrate our diversity um to celebrate our connection as the communities of the Kansas City metropolitan region and so I was approached um to participate as were you know nearly every mayor in um our region and I really challenged the idea of this being a regional event um as the mayor of Independence which is this similar to city in Jackson County in the fifth largest city in the state of Missouri I

(04:30) often found that Regional initiatives ultimately did not include the region um you know we live next to the largest city in the state um obviously Kansas City Missouri attracts most of the attention as it should um as the heart of our community but yet you know I and other Mayors on both sides of the state line both sides of the river often felt that Regional efforts were not Equitable across all of these cities and communities um so I was given a personal pledge by Jen nesbeck who’s the executive director

(05:16) of prairie departs that this would be different and it was um it was executed and continues to be executed in a way that really values and respects all of the communities equally in our great Carlton area and really guides people to learn more about some of the communities that they may not be as familiar with but also you know to learn about things that they think they know but maybe they don’t you know explore some areas of Kansas say Missouri and of you know the larger Overland Park and some of the Leewood

(05:56) and um you know some of the larger cities on both sides of the state I think it’s so interesting that you talk about how Regional efforts really aren’t Regional but you all have been able to do that what’s the secret how were you able to kind of keep that fair field you know bringing everyone to the table yeah um it’s really just a commitment from first and foremost the board of parade of Hearts um and then all of the people who work on committees all of the volunteers and the artists um this couldn’t happen without the

(06:45) artists and every single one of these Hearts is designed and created by a local artist we had hundreds of submissions for a small number of hearts that we were able to select um so it’s really just a constant and deliberate intention to say are we meeting our goals are we staying true to what we promised and um you know my role as the community engagement chair is to make sure that we are thinking about the those things and reaching out um into you know all the nooks and crannies all around our region we have a

(07:40) committee of about 40 people from you know we can’t have somebody from every town and and Village and city um but we are very deliberate in being inclusive of communities and there’s a very large public engagement component to parade of Hearts we have available now a form which people can fill out and suggest locations for 2024.

(08:10) this year is a little bit different and we’ll talk about that and why that is but next year we’ll go back to 100 plus Hearts um all over the region so we’re encouraging people right now to um you know fill out that form send us suggestions of places where you would like to see hearts and it’s really helped us to discover uh communities that may have not been well represented in in various ways and meet people and build those relationships well let’s talk about how this really was so Grassroots with Jen we’ve been

(08:52) lucky to have her on the show before and and it just seemed like it just blossomed be very transparent with us so you get these nominations or applications of designs for hearts and yeah so what’s the process of choosing what you choose um well there’s a committee who does that it’s you know we have a jury uh committee made up of artists uh Civic leaders Business Leaders um part you know people who know what they’re talking about and looking at uh art and um you know they review them and um make their selections there’s is

(09:40) obviously certain requirements since the hearts are displayed out of doors for several months so there’s you know some requirements about those types of things um but you know it’s really just a um Judgment of concept uh execution um you know the story behind the the creation you’ll see you know this year there’s several hearts that celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs for various reasons and um you know so it’s just uh you know it’s just a process and there’s there’s tons of submissions that we just don’t

(10:28) have enough Hearts to be able to do them all so we just encourage people they are artists to submit again next year and the 2024 submissions will be opening up later um early this summer so it’ll give people another opportunity um to submit their designs now there’s a whole charity component to this and talk a little bit about that and was that intentional as well yes it was very intentional um initially the um beneficiary was um going to be the University of Kansas Health System um that was when it was you know

(11:14) ultimately launched after covid that was expanded to really take into consideration the industries that were so severely impacted by the pandemic um because we use the heart um a large portion of the fundraising effort is focused on heart health and the University of Kansas Health Center our health system I’m sorry um so they are beneficiary there was um in 2022 the artist Community was a beneficiary and that was administered through Arts KC which I mentioned earlier um the hospitality industry are you know

(12:06) servers and um food service hospitality service workers um so those were all very intentional the Mid-American Regional Council assisted us with that in 2022 to help administer that so a huge shout out to the greater Kansas City Community Foundation who’s been just an incredible partner with parade of Hearts um they assisted Us in selecting the recipients for this for 2023 and 2024.

(12:45) so again the payu health system is a beneficiary uh Children’s Miracle Network and the artist Community continues to be a beneficiary as well then there was a open call for applications for the fourth beneficiary so as you can imagine we got hundreds of submissions right non-profit organizations of which we have so many incredible ones in our area and um The Family Conservancy was selected as the fourth beneficiary so um you know we were very excited about that and it’s an outstanding opportunity to learn about the great work that the

(13:31) Family Conservancy does so how is the fundraising done obviously the artists create these Hearts I understand they receive a stipend so it’s not just give us these wonderful hearts for you know with no remuneration but so how’s the other component component so then we have incredible sponsors um you’ll see as you travel around and scan your hearts and take photos of the hearts as they’re on display that each one of those hearts is sponsored by a local company um then at the end of parade of Hearts

(14:10) we have an auction last year it was a big event down at the Midland Theater um and there’s an online component where people bid on Hearts online and then we reserved a certain number of parts for a live auction so then those proceeds um benefit the uh chariable causes as well this year we are only going to do an online auction we are not going to do a live auction um because of you know what we’re calling our limited edition of having 40 Hearts this year um and then next year you know we’ll go back to a larger

(14:57) um number of parts and you know do the auction so you know there’s sponsors there’s auction we sell merchandise um so there’s a whole lot of merchandise available online for people to purchase and you know show their pride and our Heartland and the parade of Hearts program are compensated um and we did something we added something uh this year there was a public reveal of all 40 Hertz that was held at the American Royal um and the artists were there to interact with the public and they had the opportunity to also settle there were

(15:51) there are each one of them got uh you know a space that they could display and and sell their art which was phenomenal we had hoped to have a thousand people attend math there was a lot of family activities but going on around that one of our sponsors um you know wrapped Commerce and left kids and people doodle on the cars um and we had over 4 000 people attend so it was an incredible incredible success um and a wonderful opportunity for these artists um you know to show there are sell their art and interact with

(16:33) um the public it seems like such a natural thing yet you and your creative Team all came up with this Concepts I remember the cows and a lot of people probably remember the cows and it was wonderful at the same time I think some people may have cringed a little bit and said do I want to be a cow town so yeah having a heart in the Heartland is phenomenal why did you all make the decision this year to only do 40.

(17:00) oh wow um it was never supposed to be an annual event I mean originally it was going to be a one-time event but the response was so incredible that um the decision was made to extend it um for a few more years uh so it’s a mammoth undertaking you know my little lane is you know this but just the sponsorships you know producing the hearts selecting the artists finding the locations all the logistics around getting the locations and this year we are doing work what I’m calling a heart transplant where they’re in one location

(17:57) um they were in one location through May um and then then they are moving to different locations through the Fourth of July holiday so there’s a lot that goes into it um so the decision was made that in order to be able to do it in 2023 we needed to shrink it but with um the NFL draft happening in Kansas City in April we just felt you know the decision was made that we just couldn’t miss the opportunity to do parade of hearts you know in the same time frame as all of these people are you know were coming

(18:43) to Kansas City for the NFL draft and our our community was in the National Spotlight once again and um so in order to be able to pull it off we had to do this limited edition but we’d like to say the only thing that’s limited about it is the number of Hearts um they creativity the number of things being on this team that we come up with and create and try almost on a daily basis there’s always another why don’t we do this why don’t we try that I’m a little surprised that that’s coming that wasn’t planned and just this

(19:29) amazing team of energetic creative people just make it happen we’ve got to talk about how do you run something like this is anybody paid oh yeah I mean yes so there is staff that is working on this and is yes okay yeah there are there is but it’s um you know there’s contracts for different aspects of the parade of Hearts uh to handle the promotion Logistics events um all of those things but you know that’s a very small portion I realize so much on just incredible volunteers the community our sponsors our beneficiaries

(20:22) are critical to all of that as well they just um you know lend us so much support um you know the the financial backing the expertise um so yeah it’s it it takes a lot of people um and we wanted to and we want that to be ever expanding it’s it’s critical that people all in and around our region um participate in many ways um just going and looking at the hearts posting it you know engaging with us on social media and Instagram and Facebook and Twitter um you know we have Media Partners who help us incredibly to get the word out and

(21:14) you know it is a fundraiser but it’s just so much more than that I mean it’s just an experience um and the cows I do remember that that was gosh you know I feel like I was just new to Kansas City when that happened and it was a really cool project [Music] um but it was a pro you know it was a project that happened into lots of different communities for you know Hearts is just uniquely hours um you know it was born and um created right here in our um community and just as very very unique well I give credit to you all it it

(22:01) doesn’t it feels like that it doesn’t feel like well this is a Kansas City Missouri project or this is that you know Independence project and I think it’s really fun when you drive around town and you’d see these out of the corner of your eye you’re trying to be mindful of where you’re driving that you see right and and then when you see somebody stop there and it’s obvious that they’re taking a picture or they’re reading about the heart I mean that’s just what’s so joyful and what a natural we

(22:30) are the Heartland so it is you know you just created and landed on such a wonderful thing continuation I know 2024 we’re not far away but what is the plan for this wonderful project so um 2023 will wrap up um you know around Fourth of July ish you know in that time frame and um we have a little something special planned after that and then the hearts will be auctioned um and then right away or you know gearing up for 2024.

(23:16) um to you know go large again there’s a big International Event happening in 2026 in Kansas City um so there’ll be some you know thought and consideration about what we do moving forward but it will it I mean there is a it’s there is an ending time for parade of hearts and um you know it’s not gonna be something that’s gonna you know go on for decades uh which you know we want to keep it special and um so you know there’ll be more to come I you know I can’t say specifically we’re gonna you

(24:08) know re we’re always trying to keep it fresh be creative come up with new ideas and ways of doing things um so you know we’re definitely feel like we’re you know building the planet as we’re flying it a lot of the time um but you know we just have we have a wonderful um you know just product I would say and concept and um principles behind sorry to heart so that won’t change uh we’ll just favorite new and creative ways to to share the stories I I will say there’s just been things that nobody could have

(24:57) anticipated these just incredibly heartwarming stories about people in our community individuals who found a special connection with one of the hearts um and went to see them at places where they had never been um Jen may have shared this story with you previously but one of the most touching stories from last year was and Chris good who owns Ruby jeans Juicery down on 30th and Troost uh there was a heart at his business and one morning as things were sort of you know the story of Hearts was wrapping up the public part of it he

(25:48) knows a woman um outside you know trying to get a selfie with the heart early in one morning while he was opening up and so he went out to talk to her and she was a elderly woman in her 80s and she said I’ve lived in South Johnson County um for 30 years and I was always afraid to come down to this neighborhood I never felt like this was someplace where I would feel comfortable or safe or be welcomed and she said but I’ve wanted to see all 150 654 whatever that number was I wanted to see them all and this is my very last one

(26:38) um and it’s just as such I mean that’s it that just says it all that you know a woman who had lived in this community um all these years and because of this project went intentionally to go see all of the hearts and visit places where she had never been um and never thought that she would go and you know so you know that relationship built and they you know or somebody understand it like still staying contact and that’s what we really want to um encourage is um know your neighbor love your neighbor and

(27:25) um this is a great way to do that we’d be very remiss without giving you the opportunity where can people go and find all the information for parade of hearts and even maybe volunteer as you get rolling towards next year yeah um so the website uh parade of Hearts website is a great resource that gives you a lot of information um that’s where you can also buy uh merchandise and the mobile app is the best and most fun way to experience um the heart you just download that on you know Apple Android whatever you have

(28:06) and um it will you can see the map where all the hearts are you can learn about all of the artists you can that’s how when you go to the heart you can scan the QR code to just hit scan on the app and it will pull that up and you scan it and it’ll check you in um so you can keep track of all the hearts that you’ve seen that you know that’s how we collect the data where we know how many people visited each heart um which does help us you know as selecting locations for the future is you know if a heart didn’t get

(28:46) very much you know as many uh check-ins than you know we sort of evaluate that location maybe it wasn’t ideal um and then of course you know Facebook Twitter Instagram uh follow on social media there’s always I mean there’s news every week about new things and interesting things and fun things that are happening uh so um you know those are the resources and I would say you know let us reach out let us know where you’d like to see a heart um and you know we’ll include that in for next year obviously we can’t put one

(29:35) every place but um you know we’re always looking for those suggestions as well and it’s paradeofhearts.com yes and there’s all kinds of colorful information there for sure and shopping is lots of fun and it all goes to support Charities and and the ongoing idea of you know having these hearts in the Heartland you’re having the beat goes on to uh swipe a song from uh the 60s and 70s as it were Eileen how lucky they are to have you as part of this this whole Endeavor and your creativity and your energy and your commitment and

(30:12) thank you for spending a little bit of time with us to share all the great stuff about parade of hearts well thank you Ruth it was it’s a it’s a great project to work on it’s a joy to be a part of it and thank you for having me today and uh Happy heart hunting absolutely thank you for joining us for the KC cares Kansas City’s non-profit voice we’re produced by charitable Communications which is also a non-profit this KC care segment was brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

(30:44) www.huffman.org if you’d like to be a guest on KC cares please visit our website KCcaresonline.org and spread the love you’ll find us on Facebook and Twitter at KC cares Radio and on Instagram at KC cares online don’t forget you can catch us on Saturday mornings at 8 A.M on ESPN 15 10 a.m 94.

(31:06) 5 FM thank you for joining us on KC cares

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Seven Days Discusses Community Efforts

Mar 31, 2023

Mindy Corporan & Jill Anderson

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Chris Rosson CEO United Way Discusses 2023 Initiatives

Feb 24, 2023

Chris Rosson | CEO & President

The United Ways mission has always been to mobilize our city’s collective generosity, because we know there’s strength in numbers. They work together with hundreds of nonprofits across our six-county region and help 1 in 3 Kansas Citians gain access to health, education and financial resources. United Way connects those who want to be catalysts for change with causes that change our community for the better. The Waymakers make this possible.

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[Transcript]

00:00:00:19 – 00:00:22:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
Welcome to KC Cares. Kansas City’s nonprofit voice were telling the stories of Kansas City nonprofits and the people behind them. KC Cares is the intersection of a profit and nonprofit communities making Kansas City a better place to live, work and play. The segment is brought to you by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. W.W. Kauffman dot org. I’m responding as well.

00:00:23:05 – 00:00:50:19
Ruth Baum Bigus
It was pre-pandemic when we first encountered our dynamic guest today. He was leading Teach for America here in Kansas City, being innovative, bringing equity across the educational environment in the in the entire metro. Then an opportunity came and Chris Ross couldn’t resist. It was come to United Way and we got to talk to Chris. And it was pandemic and it was crazy.

00:00:50:19 – 00:01:07:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
And we were on Zoom and it was just amazing. We could even get connected. But here we are. You’ve been here a little bit of the way for a while. Let’s talk about the Mr. Changemaker and Mr. Innovator. Bring us up to speed on all things United Way.

00:01:08:12 – 00:01:35:14
Chris Rossen
Well, first off, thanks for having me, Ruth. I always love getting the opportunity to talk with you and talk about all things change and possibility in our community. We have been busy. You know, you’re right that I arrived at, I think, a very opportune time as what I would say. You know, I think collectively, the pandemic and the racial reckoning and everything that we saw happening over the last 24 months plus really sort of called upon all of us to recognize that we needed to think about things differently.

00:01:35:14 – 00:01:57:20
Chris Rossen
We need to do things differently, and we need to be more responsive and agile to what we’re now. Community needs that could change on a dime. And I think one thing that became very clear to us was that we needed to find a way to galvanize around community needs issues in a more collaborative way, but also to make resources available and more and more reactive to how community need is changing in real time.

00:01:58:05 – 00:02:20:21
Chris Rossen
And so we’ve done a few things. We have launched our new primary grantmaking channel, which is Impact 100. And so it is a collection of organizations where every year we identify 100 organizations in our community, nonprofit organizations that we believe are driving the highest impact against where community need lives today, right now in real time. And we know that’s ever changing.

00:02:21:03 – 00:02:48:10
Chris Rossen
And so that’s an annual cycle. We publish an annual list, and we take it very seriously. It’s a very rigorous effort on our part, and we believe it’s a really reflective list of of organizations that are driving impact. The second thing is, of course, in two in one, we just during the pandemic, we really found two and one to be that almost like the canary in the coal mine where we were able to see community needs spike in certain areas in particular around housing insecurity and food insecurity.

00:02:48:14 – 00:03:13:18
Chris Rossen
I think the last time we talked, which I shared, that while there were lots of resources and efforts being put into the here and now pandemic response, that I had a real concern and we were monitoring sort of the long tail implication of COVID and what that would do in our community. And that’s certainly something that we’ve been able to leverage two and one to mine for data, to see how those trends are emerging, to see how they change, and to make sure that we’re getting out in front as much as possible in our community.

00:03:14:09 – 00:03:34:08
Chris Rossen
And then with that, you know, we’ve taken on and continued on with a few strategic initiatives, including a very large one around eviction. And so eviction prevention initiative that’s been going on for for for nearly two years now. And again, tied to sort of pandemic related effects that we continue to monitor and make sure that we’re addressing holistically as a community.

00:03:34:23 – 00:03:43:23
Ruth Baum Bigus
Impact 100. Talk about the nuts and bolts of that and how those different nonprofits were chosen and why they were chosen.

00:03:44:12 – 00:04:21:07
Chris Rossen
Well, so we have for quite a while continue to focus on the issues of health, education and income, financial stability, really as key drivers and transforming lives throughout our community. And that has been the case for some time. However, from a grantmaking standpoint, we intended to go toward longer term grants. And I think, again, just looking at the pandemic and looking at how quickly community need changed and shifted overnight, I just felt it was very important for us as an organization to be agile in our response and to be nimble when it came to addressing those needs and to really take a stance of rigor and really in some ways be a bellwether to the

00:04:21:07 – 00:04:40:23
Chris Rossen
community about organizations that are driving impact. It is a big, difficult task. You know, I think we talked before and I had shared that over the last ten years we’ve grown in our region from 500 registered nonprofits to over 10,000 that is a monumental amount of huge continues to to increase. People are finding all sorts of ways to get connected to causes.

00:04:40:23 – 00:05:04:01
Chris Rossen
And people are starting new organizations all the time and I think, you know, for us as an organization became very important to make sure that we were still being that bellwether in our community of organizations that were really high, high, high impact, really rigorous about outcomes and really driving a meaningful, measurable difference against those those those points of data that we look at in those areas of health, education and income.

00:05:04:01 – 00:05:21:21
Chris Rossen
And so it is a it’s a it’s a rigorous process. We accept applications widely. We encourage organizations to apply. If you’re if there’s somebody listening in their organization that would consider applying, they should do so. We we’re about to launch or announce our latest list here in in the spring summer timeframe. And so be on the lookout for that.

00:05:21:21 – 00:05:41:15
Chris Rossen
But it is, I think for us, an ability to not only drive dollars to those organizations, but to draw eyeballs, attention, volunteerism, awareness of some of these organizations. And again, when you look at that list, you will find organizations on that list that are household names that people would know. And you’ll find a whole host of organizations that you never heard of and you had no idea existed.

00:05:41:15 – 00:05:45:01
Chris Rossen
But are really driving incredible outcomes are in our community.

00:05:45:03 – 00:05:50:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
So if you made the impact 100 the first time around, you are not precluded from reapplying.

00:05:50:17 – 00:06:06:13
Chris Rossen
No, not at all. You’re not you’re not you’re not precluded from from applying. You can you can certainly apply again. But but there’s no guarantee that you’ll make it back on that list. Right. It is it is a dynamic list and it is really rooted in and where community need lives at this moment in time.

00:06:07:05 – 00:06:25:13
Ruth Baum Bigus
I know one thing we talked about the first time we had a conversation when you started at the very beginning of United Way, I said to you, there are some organizations that say, Oh, my United Way, Grant, it’s so long. It takes me forever. How have you addressed that? Is have things changed there?

00:06:25:22 – 00:06:54:23
Chris Rossen
Yeah, they have. You know, we really streamlined the application process for funds like Impact 100. We’ve taken a we’ve committed as far as I’m aware, we’re the largest and the first major philanthropic entity here in Kansas City. And a big funder to completely adopt the trust based philanthropy principles. And so, you know, when we part of that is ensuring that we have a low barrier to entry in terms of access, that we’re not making that process extra cumbersome on folks that are already doing great, meaningful work.

00:06:54:23 – 00:07:14:13
Chris Rossen
We want I want I want organizations that are applying for funding and applying to partner with us to spend as much effort as possible driving mission and as little effort as, as as required doing administrative tasks like applying for these sorts of things. And so we do try to make it streamlined and easy, but we do take a high bar in terms of the types of quality of inputs that we get from from that process.

00:07:14:13 – 00:07:25:07
Chris Rossen
But that was definitely a point of feedback that I heard that I wanted to address and something that, you know, as somebody who ran an organization that would have been eligible for funding like that in the past, it was important for me to make sure that that was a streamlined process as well.

00:07:25:19 – 00:07:30:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Trust based philanthropy. I’m not sure I’ve heard that buzzing out there. How would you define that?

00:07:31:06 – 00:07:58:08
Chris Rossen
Well, I think trust based philanthropy really puts the ownership on the grant maker to take a rigorous stance in looking into what makes an organization tick, what’s driving their mission, and to really be relational, I think more than anything, it is it is acknowledging that there’s an inherent power dynamic at play when there’s somebody holding on to funding and somebody who’s requesting funding, and it’s acknowledging both the complexities and the dynamics of that while simultaneously saying, we’re partners in this.

00:07:58:08 – 00:08:27:02
Chris Rossen
You know, and and the expectations not that the organization’s perfect, the expectations that the organization’s making progress on an ongoing basis, and that we’re really partners in that we’re coaches in that provide feedback, we provide connection, and we provide opportunities to get funding, but not in a way that is punitive or or overly rigorous. It is it’s intended to make the funding accessible and the partnership really a true comprehensive partnership.

00:08:27:07 – 00:08:52:18
Ruth Baum Bigus
That’s see change. That’s really see change. I think for folks who maybe have been in this community and used to the old way of doing things that United Way versus the New Way, collaboration is huge. You’re a collaborator, you’ve got lots of energy. That’s kind of your vision. So how have you been able as your leading United Way, to bring that in and move things forward?

00:08:53:10 – 00:09:10:02
Chris Rossen
Well, you know, it’s in our name, United Way, right? You know, I think about I was at the Chiefs game. You know, we got the we got the the the a lot of excitement around here around the Chiefs. And, you know, I think about the fact that how powerful we are as a as a as a crowd and how involved we get into the game.

00:09:10:02 – 00:09:27:13
Chris Rossen
And we all elevate our voices together. And so collaboration is absolutely critical if you’re trying to move something at scale and with the types of challenges where we’re taking on and really transforming the community by transforming individual lives and the lives of families in our community that that are facing hardship, that takes it that takes a community effort.

00:09:27:13 – 00:09:44:04
Chris Rossen
It really takes a village. And so a lot of our efforts are rooted in not the transactional, just sort of here’s here’s some funding go do with it, but really getting grounded together in the in the challenges, getting grounded together in the solutions and and bringing all perspectives and voices to the table to try to address those.

00:09:44:18 – 00:10:10:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
What you mentioned, the issue of housing, unhoused people who face temporary housing, etc.. How do you how do you do that? It’s such a big challenge and it’s across ages, too. I think that sometimes people don’t realize it’s just, you know, families with children or a single. I’ve now been hearing about terrible issues with older adults who can’t find affordable housing.

00:10:10:21 – 00:10:14:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
So how do you tackle that huge issue?

00:10:14:10 – 00:10:44:10
Chris Rossen
Yeah, it is a huge issue. And it’s and it’s one of those things we talked about the long tail implication of of COVID. It’s one of those things that we were early on just sort of aware of. We were getting an influx of calls and two and one that were and we still today today right now, today, we get over 100 calls a day from families who are facing facing housing insecurity, families who are somewhere in either the eviction process or recognize that they can’t pay their bills and and are in a situation where they really need some support and some help.

00:10:45:16 – 00:11:12:11
Chris Rossen
To this point about collaboration, we’ve taken a collaborative approach to addressing that and a proactive approach addressing that. We worked with a variety of legal aid partners, both at U-M KC Law School, as well as the Heartland Center and as well as of about 30 or so social service agencies throughout the community. And collectively, we’ve been able to advocate for around $25 million in both federal resources, as well as pooling private resources together and taking on what we call the Eviction Prevention Initiative.

00:11:13:04 – 00:11:33:10
Chris Rossen
And it’s really trying to address the issue of homelessness and housing insecurity before a family is facing eviction, before a family being kicked out of their homes and and having to, you know, look to a shelter which are already already facing really constraints. And I’m pleased to say that through that effort, in some cases, we’re paying back rent.

00:11:33:10 – 00:11:57:13
Chris Rossen
In some cases, we’re helping people get up to up to a current on their utility payments. In other cases, we’re really standing with them in the courts process and we’re representing them through legal aid in the in the eviction courts process itself. And I’m proud to say that over that last 24 months, we’ve supported 75,000 people, kept them out of homelessness, 25,000 families, 75,000 individuals in our community.

00:11:57:16 – 00:12:19:13
Chris Rossen
I think, as you said, I think there’s a misnomer and a misperception that folks that are facing that these are folks that are maybe unemployed or or facing other sorts of situations, but know what we’re seeing. But with with with inflation and with other things, we’re seeing that actually about half of the folks that are coming to us from court making those calls, these are folks, working people who are employed, who are really doing the best they can.

00:12:19:13 – 00:12:30:13
Chris Rossen
They’re resilient and they just need some support from their neighbors. And I’m just really glad that, you know, that way we get to be able to provide that support and be that that friendly, helping face whenever that whenever they face that moment of hardship.

00:12:31:11 – 00:12:33:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do the municipalities play with you?

00:12:34:05 – 00:12:51:09
Chris Rossen
We work we coordinate with them often both in terms of social service delivery, but also in terms of making sure that funding is getting used and put in the most optimal places. So they are strong partners with us and all that, and that’s really region wide. County by county, the cities, I mean, it’s really a it’s really is a collective effort.

00:12:52:12 – 00:13:02:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
Let’s flip to two, one, one. Been there for a while. Bring us up to speed on what it’s doing and how that really makes a difference in the community to have that.

00:13:03:05 – 00:13:21:14
Chris Rossen
Yeah. So you know two and one for those who aren’t aware, it’s our community’s resource and referral network. It’s, it is really the connective tissue of our nonprofit space is the connective tissue of our social service space really in some ways the connective tissue of our community. We have community resource navigators who stand by the ready on the phones.

00:13:22:02 – 00:13:38:13
Chris Rossen
24 seven 365 over 150 languages spoken. And these are and they really deserve a shout out. Our community resource navigators really deserve a shout out. I’m really grateful to to the support that they provide our community. And these are folks who are answering calls. When somebody in our community falls upon hard times, they don’t know where to turn.

00:13:38:13 – 00:13:57:23
Chris Rossen
They’ve got an unexpected medical bill that they can’t afford. They’ve got they’re facing housing insecurity. They can’t put food on the table and they’re not really sure where to turn in that sea of 10,000 plus nonprofits, two and one becomes that place that they can call, they can speak to a friendly friend, friend who who will walk through, learn about their situation and connect them.

00:13:58:09 – 00:14:17:01
Chris Rossen
We have an over 90% success rate in connecting people with resources they need in the community, and then again, we also now are really doubling down on using it as a way to measure and sort of track emerging community needs. And so that sort of canary in the coal mine kind of approach, we certainly use it as an input to assessing and understanding community need and how it evolves.

00:14:17:17 – 00:14:33:00
Chris Rossen
And I think that it’s one of those resource in our community that needs to be talked about, more needs to be understood. More and more people need to be aware of it. And I will say, when we talk about community and measuring it, you know, since 2018, we’ve seen it over 20% increase in call volume two, two, two, two, one, one.

00:14:33:05 – 00:14:39:14
Chris Rossen
And that’s a real indicator of the fact that we have real significant challenges that we’re facing and need to address in our community.

00:14:40:04 – 00:14:47:08
Ruth Baum Bigus
They’ve got to be nice people with lots of patience. I would imagine, to sit there and, you know, listen to somebody else’s woes, albeit very legitimate.

00:14:48:04 – 00:14:50:17
Chris Rossen
But can I just say that can be any of our woes. And I think.

00:14:50:19 – 00:14:53:09
Ruth Baum Bigus
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you’ve been there?

00:14:53:10 – 00:14:54:22
Chris Rossen
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

00:14:55:07 – 00:15:06:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
How does that how does your own background weigh into what you do here every day? And if you want to give a little recap in case someone missed the last time we talked.

00:15:06:11 – 00:15:28:01
Chris Rossen
Yeah, well, so so by way of background, I grew up here in Kansas City. I grew up in a low income household. I grew up in one of our city’s high violent crime rate neighborhoods. I was the first person in my family graduate high school, first person to go on to graduate college. And that is that that lived experience is something that is a very present thing with me.

00:15:28:01 – 00:15:47:09
Chris Rossen
It’s something that goes with me every and every room and every conversation. And it really does inform every decision that I make here. When we’re making decisions about programs to support, we’re making decisions about resource allocation or we’re making decisions about Asian initiatives to take on. You know, I’m often we talk that we talk about these things that scale.

00:15:47:09 – 00:16:02:13
Chris Rossen
I mean, we’re working I mean, we touch one in three people in the community every year. And so when when that’s the sort of scale that you’re working with, sometimes it can be easy to fall into the fray of just looking at these in terms of numbers. But for me, what I know is that I was that kid on the other side of that equation.

00:16:02:13 – 00:16:19:14
Chris Rossen
I was the person who was receiving those sorts of benefits. I’ve benefited so directly from those things. And so that is a part of of every conversation. And I think one thing that’s important to note, I hear a lot of talk sort of in the community as I go out and about about, you know, which which which sort of solutions better than the others.

00:16:19:14 – 00:16:45:14
Chris Rossen
And when I look at my own life story, you know, I didn’t just need food pantry assistance. I didn’t just needs afterschool programs. I didn’t just need mentoring programs or free health clinics. Of course, I needed all of those things and at different points along my journey. And one of the things I love about the approach we take care at United Way is that it is a comprehensive, holistic approach, community based approach, and a really a collective action approach to addressing to transforming lives.

00:16:45:19 – 00:16:59:22
Chris Rossen
I feel like given my background and given the transformation that I’ve experienced firsthand, I’ve got the best job in the world I get we get to change the world every day, one life at a time. And and that and that is very meaningful and very personal work to me.

00:17:00:22 – 00:17:16:05
Ruth Baum Bigus
You have employees, obviously, teammates, associates, whatever the term is. You want to use that work here with you every day. Let’s talk about lay leadership and the role of the rest of the community. How do they play into what United Way is doing?

00:17:16:13 – 00:17:35:04
Chris Rossen
Well, so that’s really at the core. I think of another role we play, which is to stoke that philanthropic flame. In fact, we often talk about our work now in terms of inspiring and enabling a local movement of change agents, or, as we call them, way makers. Because when I think about my that path that I talked about, those opportunities were made possible.

00:17:35:04 – 00:17:54:05
Chris Rossen
Those other teams made all the difference in the world to me. And they were made possible by strangers who chipped in a dollar where they could, who made an investment when they could, who volunteered their time, who gave of their expertize. And in order to sort of I really believe that the business of changing the world, the business of transforming the community is not any one organization or one individuals responsibility.

00:17:54:05 – 00:18:06:02
Chris Rossen
It’s all of our responsibilities. And so we more and more view our role as helping enable that and helping educate and helping help give people proximity to both the challenges and also the promising solutions that exist here in our community.

00:18:07:04 – 00:18:20:11
Ruth Baum Bigus
So what role is there for a volunteer? If they say, I’m all behind this, I’m all behind what Chris is saying, rah, rah, let’s go. How do they get in, get connected, help make some of those decisions or carry the mission?

00:18:21:01 – 00:18:42:22
Chris Rossen
Yeah. So you can I would say go to our website and follow us on social media. We post volunteer opportunities regularly. We also bank a a resource bank where any nonprofit organization in the community can post volunteer opportunities post needs. And that’s a great place. You know, I would say start anywhere, anywhere, start anywhere is that is the thing to do.

00:18:43:03 – 00:18:58:17
Chris Rossen
And I think it also can be intimidating if you’re new to the space, you don’t and you’re not really sure where to start it. It can be intimidating. We’ve tried to sort of ease that as well. We have a whole host of what we call immersion experiences, bus tours and educational opportunities where folks can go and visit organizations.

00:18:58:17 – 00:19:23:11
Chris Rossen
They can learn about an issue, for instance, you know, homelessness or education or early childhood education. They can learn about what are the issues related to that? They get proximate to some of the organizations making a difference in those spaces. And my hope is that they find their love and they find their passion. But whatever they do, I would just encourage folks to get involved, be an advocate, be educated and and do what you can because we all can do something.

00:19:25:09 – 00:19:42:01
Ruth Baum Bigus
What have you found to be the greatest challenge? Maybe challenges would go with more than one. If there is one, as you’ve you’ve settled in now, you you’ve kind of gotten your team, although we know people go in and out. What’s that challenge and how have you tried to meet it?

00:19:43:00 – 00:20:10:18
Chris Rossen
You know, the, the, the, the best the worst part about this job is that you’re you’re confronted every day with the challenges. You know, we really have significant, significant challenges in our community. And I think that one thing that I find is that increasingly as a society, we feel divided. You know, politics, economics, technology, you know, increasingly puts us further and further in our silos, further and further tucked away from each other.

00:20:11:00 – 00:20:26:18
Chris Rossen
And I yet at the same time, I get so inspired at the best part of the job is I get so inspired. We, we, we see individuals and organizations throughout the community who are stepping up to to address needs, stepping up to make a difference. And, and every day when those folks step up, they support a neighbor in need.

00:20:26:18 – 00:20:41:04
Chris Rossen
They volunteer with an organization who’s looking for help, that they mentor somebody, a young person in their community. Every time those things happen, those are folks who are choosing a brighter future for all of us, choosing a collective future of their choosing, whether they work with us or not. They’re choosing a united way forward for all of us.

00:20:41:11 – 00:20:57:18
Chris Rossen
And those really are the way makers in our community. And so from a from a challenge standpoint, I would just say that that’s keeping people’s attention on these issues. And when it’s not facing you every day, when you’re not growing up in that environment, when you’re not sort of confronted with some of those real challenges, it can be.

00:20:57:18 – 00:21:06:21
Chris Rossen
It can be it can be a challenge to grab people’s attention in such a cluttered world. But what I also see every day is that that’s a challenge is being met, particularly here in Kansas City by our community.

00:21:07:11 – 00:21:14:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ve got some new things, share intel. You’ve got the Food Pantry initiative, talk a little bit about that. Yeah.

00:21:14:03 – 00:21:37:13
Chris Rossen
So I’m pleased to share that we just recently we know we’re just really again closely monitoring community need with what we know about inflation is that that’s putting a pinch on everybody and particularly organizations like women’s shelters and and organizations, Head Start centers and organizations who are supporting youth. The new American populations, particularly vulnerable populations accessing certain needs and supports.

00:21:38:20 – 00:21:59:19
Chris Rossen
And so in order to address that, we’ve partnered together with a few of our philanthropic partners. We pooled community resources that have been donated to United Way. And I’m and I’m grateful to say that we’ve just recently awarded nearly $400,000 in additional food pantry assistance to about 30 organizations here in town who are providing food pantry assistance to folks in order to bolster up what they have.

00:21:59:19 – 00:22:15:03
Chris Rossen
And what we’ve seen and heard from them is that they’re seeing a 20% increase just because of inflation, a 20% increase in demand. And those are again, many of them are working families. These are folks who are doing everything they can. They’re pinching pennies. They’re living paycheck to paycheck. And they just need a little extra support from our community.

00:22:15:12 – 00:22:21:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
Right. And in the bio arena, you’ve got another new initiative here, this catalyst program. You were telling.

00:22:21:17 – 00:22:38:18
Chris Rossen
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I’m also, you know, really excited to share that we’ve we’ve partnered with the Kauffman Foundation and we’ve created, in addition to the impact, 100 and other sort of grant initiatives that we have, we have an opportunity for a catalyst fund that is about about two and a half to $3 million over the next three years.

00:22:38:18 – 00:23:06:14
Chris Rossen
That collectively United Way and the Coffin Foundation have committed to creating a catalyst fund to support Bipoc, Black, Indigenous and people of color led or primarily serving organizations in our community. In particular, we’re looking at small nonprofits, organizations that may not have the the the time history or have had the access to capital or have had the access to networks that have been able to reach a certain degree of impact scale to be competitive for something like Impact 100.

00:23:06:14 – 00:23:18:13
Chris Rossen
But we want to make sure that they have access to funds and resources that are fully dedicated and set aside to, again, catalyze the next generation of important nonprofits and community rooted nonprofits in our community.

00:23:19:07 – 00:23:34:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
Probably the elephant in the room. How are contributions going? What have you seen? I mean, we were in the heat of the pandemic. We’re now in what, pandemic? Two or whatever you want to call this new phase. How have you watched that happen and how are you addressing it?

00:23:35:15 – 00:24:01:09
Chris Rossen
Well, our community continues to be incredibly generous with time, talent and treasure. They continue to be generous. And we’ve certainly seen that, you know, companies are facing, as you said, through pandemic and other things, all sorts of disruptions in terms of workforce, workforce. And and yet at the same time, I am just emboldened by the fact that our largest companies, individuals throughout our community, step up again year after year and understand that there are these real needs in our community that need be addressed.

00:24:01:09 – 00:24:24:15
Chris Rossen
And they continue to trust United Way with that. And so fundraising efforts have been strong, you know, as as is as you know, it can always be stronger. We can always, always use more. But what I what what I what I see though is that a real resiliency in the funding community as well, even in spaces where the same challenges that we talk about food insecurity, inflation, some of these sorts of things, they affect all of us.

00:24:24:22 – 00:24:32:21
Chris Rossen
And yet we still find folks who continue year after year to make giving and investing back in the community. And a big part of what they a big part of.

00:24:33:01 – 00:24:45:21
Ruth Baum Bigus
And stepping is stepping up when when it’s needed. All right. So let’s take Chris’s crystal ball now. Where do you envision United Way, let’s say, in five years from now? What do you see.

00:24:46:01 – 00:25:06:12
Chris Rossen
One five years from now? I hope that we continue to just be really resilient and agile in terms of how we’re addressing community need. I, I hope that that as a community we continue to build smarter and more sustainable solutions to addressing these challenges. You know, I one of the things that that gets asked of me often in public forums is, well, you guys have been in operation for 100 years.

00:25:06:12 – 00:25:24:13
Chris Rossen
You know, how, you know, why have we solved homelessness or why have we solved educational inequity? And I often sort of think about the weather, right? We still have hurricanes. We still have earthquakes. We still have these sorts of things. I can’t think of any point in time in our history that we’ve not had issues of inequity, issues of haves and have nots.

00:25:24:13 – 00:25:40:05
Chris Rossen
We’ve not had issues of isms and tribal isms and all these sorts of things that happen. And yet we have to be smarter and more sophisticated in the solutions set that we that we address those with and some of the evolutions that we’ve talked about even today, are our efforts to make sure that we are continuing to stay relevant.

00:25:40:05 – 00:26:01:00
Chris Rossen
We’re continuing to stay ahead of the curve in terms of addressing those things and in the same way with the weather. Right. We’ve got more sophisticated technology. We’re not just ducking under a wall. We’re sort of doing all sorts of things and it’s the same sort of thing in this space. And so I really view in many ways what we do at United Way, where we’re sort of a a crowdfunded solutions engine for the community.

00:26:01:00 – 00:26:08:18
Chris Rossen
Right. And we need to be constantly sort of in the aggregate, working together to build smarter and more sustainable solutions to these these really pressing issues.

00:26:09:11 – 00:26:12:02
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’ve got five girls, pretty young.

00:26:12:04 – 00:26:12:14
Chris Rossen
Yes.

00:26:13:23 – 00:26:31:04
Ruth Baum Bigus
How do you bring in the next generation? I’m not saying the 5 to 10 year olds, little young, but the millennial, the Gen Z, the whatever you want to call it, seems like that’s always a challenge for nonprofits. So how are you all going about trying to get that buy in and their involvement?

00:26:31:16 – 00:26:40:21
Chris Rossen
Well, we you know, we have a well, I’ve just one thing I will say on that, though, is that the younger generation of which I still like to think I’m.

00:26:41:10 – 00:26:45:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
You’re there some of us are in a little more mature generation.

00:26:45:17 – 00:27:05:14
Chris Rossen
The younger generation are incredibly idea focused. They’re incredibly issue focused. We are we are the issues that we take on and we get involved with. We’re very serious about. And I think they really lead with their heart in a lot of ways. And so we see that they are actively engaged and they want to continue to be engaged.

00:27:05:20 – 00:27:22:09
Chris Rossen
We, of course, try to provide opportunities through those those immersive experience that I talked about to make sure it’s accessible to folks and also fun, you know, I’m a big believer that you should have fun doing serious work. And I think that that is part of what we see that we continue to try to infuse. And we get together for volunteer gatherings.

00:27:22:09 – 00:27:42:01
Chris Rossen
We get together for donor gatherings, and when we go on service experiences that we try to ensure that it’s also a fun experience. And I haven’t met somebody, a younger person anywhere that’s not interested in having a good time. I wanted to tell. Yeah. And I would just say that they’re also very, you know, there there are a million ways that folks can get over a million ways to be united, million ways to to get involved.

00:27:42:01 – 00:27:58:15
Chris Rossen
And and that that that young people are really creative in terms of how they find ways to get involved. And a lot of the growth that we talked about, the nonprofit sector is being driven by young people who are saying, you know what, I think I have a I think I have a different solution set that we can bring to the table, a different way of looking at that problem.

00:27:59:04 – 00:28:02:22
Chris Rossen
And I think that’s what gets me really excited and optimistic about the future.

00:28:02:22 – 00:28:10:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Do you ever get any pushback from those folks that, well, this is the way we’ve always done it, or I have the wisdom because I’ve been here longer than you.

00:28:10:11 – 00:28:11:01
Chris Rossen
Of course.

00:28:11:11 – 00:28:14:17
Ruth Baum Bigus
Of course. So how do you do that? You tap dance right now.

00:28:14:17 – 00:28:37:08
Chris Rossen
We say, hey, tell us what you think and let’s talk about it. Right. And I also think that, you know, I heard the other day that everyone’s called everyone collectively smarter than anyone individually. And I think that any we want all ideas, all ideas at the table. I’m aware when we’re doing that. You just you did mention something that I want to I want to bring up, which was that we talked about my little kiddos.

00:28:37:10 – 00:28:54:12
Chris Rossen
Right. And ensuring that they’re getting involved. That’s something that I think it’s never too young to get involved. And actually, we see we see young kids, you know, go to go to a go to an elementary school and check out their food drive. Go to an elementary school and talk about and really the things that young people do.

00:28:54:12 – 00:29:02:05
Chris Rossen
They’re thinking creatively. They have a different perspective to bring to the table. And I don’t think it’s ever too young to get folks involved in and in shaping the community for the better.

00:29:02:19 – 00:29:06:20
Ruth Baum Bigus
Plus, they can learn the right way to do things instead of all the mistakes that we go through, right?

00:29:06:20 – 00:29:10:07
Chris Rossen
That’s right. Build up, build, build and iterate off of the mistakes of the past for sure.

00:29:10:08 – 00:29:21:22
Ruth Baum Bigus
Chris, it’s been great to sit down with you. Thank you for bringing us up to speed. We expect great things moving forward and fun things moving forward. Right. And everybody should check out United Way. Go ahead and give the plug on your website. If you want.

00:29:21:23 – 00:29:28:09
Chris Rossen
To check out United Way’s our website, follow us on social. That’s the best way to get to get in touch with us and stay up to date on all things in our community.

00:29:29:06 – 00:29:48:03
Ruth Baum Bigus
Thank you for tuning in to KC Cares, Kansas City’s nonprofit voice. We are glad to be sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Don’t forget, you can catch us Saturday mornings on ESPN 1510 and 94.5 FM. Thanks for joining us on KC CARES.

 

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