Key Points:
- Urban League of Kansas adds staff and launches Family Resource Center.
- Family Resource Specialist adds programs and services to the Center.
- Center offers free classes, game day, and Neighborhood Night Out event.
The Urban League of Kansas is in growth mode.
After suffering a hard blow during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization once heavily relied on in the community it serves has added staff and launched a new Family Resource Center to provide a wide range of services to families in need.
John Castellaw joined the Urban League Staff last year as Family Resource Specialist.
The goal is to keep growing the Resource Center, adding more programs and services as funding becomes available.
Creation of the Families Resource Center was funded by a 20-month grant from the Kansas Department of Children and Families. Urban League’s Interim President and CEO, Cindy Miles, said the grant is renewable for another 30 months and she feels confident that it will have demonstrated enough value to earn continued funding when it expires.
Miles said she felt like serving families is the core mission of Urban League. “Education, stable housing, employment services, health programs are all about caring for our families and it seemed like having a family resource specialist just made sense.”
Castellaw has set up a “family resource room” which doubles as a play area for children when their parents are attending Urban League classes and a storage area where shelves are stocked with food as well as hygiene supplies, diapers, games and other items that many families find difficult to afford. Residents in need can simply stop in the Urban League building at 2418 E. Ninth to pick up items they need.
“I tell people to take only what they need right now because our supplies are dependent on donations,” Castellaw said.
There’s also a bookcase full of children’s books at various reading levels where families can choose books to build their own libraries.
Parents helping parents
“We have a Parent Advisory Council that lets us know what the community needs most,” he said. “It is because of them that we paired with Consumer Counseling to offer free classes in how to make and follow a budget, how to repair credit and how to get in position to buy a home.”
The Family Resource Center offers Family Game Day where families can gather to play board games or video games or, thanks to the generosity of a building tenant, Gift of Chess, learn to play chess.
The Center held a Neighborhood Night Out event last summer shortly after he started.
“We had 26 vendors come out and we had free hot dogs and chips and even some wings donated,” he said. “We’ve also had the mobile van here to do free mammograms and we had a very successful holiday decorations exchange where we had trees, ornaments, stockings and lights. It was a big hit and we’ll definitely do that again.”
Castellaw said he is excited to see the Center growing and expanding services.
“I’m hoping to be able to offer some kind of fatherhood program and I am excited to find a way to build on a class we offer on rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords,” he said. “I’d like to see some way to be involved in helping tenants and landlords settle disputes.”
Getting youth involved
“We have some additional youth workers coming for the summer and I hope that will lead to a Youth Advisory Council that will function much the way our Parent Council works to offer us advice on what programs, classes and services will be the most helpful for our young people,” he added.
The youth workers will be courtesy of the YMCA Job Prep Program and perhaps from the City of Wichita’s Way to Work program, Castellow said.
“I’m looking forward to them being able to start a Youth Ambassadors social media campaign,” he said.
Castellaw’s story
Castellaw said his early childhood was difficult as his mother struggled to care for her younger children – and ultimately could not.
“We were sometimes homeless. We moved a lot and then my mom surrendered us to the state when we lived in Las Vegas. My grandmother had a talk with my uncles who were still at home and the family agreed that they should take me and my younger siblings and she came and got us,” he said.
He was a middle school student when he came to Wichita. He attended Truesdell Middle and graduated from South High before going on to earn his BS in Public Administration at the University of Kansas and his Master’s in Public Health at the University of Arizona.
“I loved school and I soon had leadership positions and all kinds of opportunities. Wichita has been very, very good to me. When I heard about a position being open for a Family Resources director, I knew it was my chance to give back. And here I am.”
What Family Resource Center needs
There are several items almost always needed to help the Center help families. They include: bus passes, diapers, children’s books, coloring books and crayons, ethnic hair products, gas cards, healthy snacks, new children’s underwear and socks, school supplies and backpacks, special event passes, and toiletries including toothpaste, soap, and deodorant.
