KANSAS CITY NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE

KCNA, whose motto is “because strong cities are built on strong neighborhoods,” will celebrate 25 years of service in the Urban Core of Kansas City. This year it has focused on the low- to moderate-income families. KCNA staff and board are constantly seeking additional ways to fulfill its vision and mission. KCNA’s vision is that Kansas City’s neighborhoods are safe, strong, stable, and attractive places where people are proud to live. This is done by following is mission of strengthening the social, financial, and physical infrastructure of neighborhoods through programming, education, and housing opportunities.

In 2004, KCNA has increased its use of volunteers to help fulfill its vision. A brief summary of some of the volunteer activities that have been coordinated by KCNA to mobilize different segments of the population from the community to improve Kansas City’s neighborhoods follows.

Neighborhood mobilization of resident volunteers has always been encouraged, promoted, taught, and assisted by KCNA. Some of the 2004 volunteer activities that KCNA has partnered in organizing within urban core neighborhoods include the following: neighborhood clean-ups (trash, hazard waste, tree limbs, tires), neighborhood fundraising to meet a specific need within the neighborhood, surveying the housing conditions of the houses within a neighborhood to assist in developing a plan to address the unfavorable housing conditions. KCNA also helped volunteers to organize neighborhood crime patrols, and organize systemic ways to address code violations within neighborhoods.