In a demonstration of community collaboration, seven predominantly Black neighborhoods in Kansas City’s urban core are joining forces to combat blight and beautify their streets, thanks in part to a $750,000 ReBuild KC grant.
The Community Resource Team (CRT), a nonprofit comprised of neighborhood leaders from Ivanhoe, Santa Fe, Oak Park, Boston Heights/Mount Hope, Wendell Phillips, Key Coalition and Washington Wheatley received the grant this week. The funds will be used to purchase heavy-duty equipment like chainsaws, shovels and other hand tools.
These resources will be used to address long-standing issues such as overgrowth, trash removal, and neighborhood beautification.
At their recent preconference, CRT members showed off their “excavator.” With their own equipment and trained volunteers, CRT will be able to handle major cleanups far less expensively than contracting the services.
Funds from the grant will also be used for staffing, office space, and equipment for the project’s first year.
This initiative represents a significant step toward community-driven revitalization in these historically underserved areas.
“We will be able to help ourselves,” said Karen Slaughter, president of both the Key Coalition Neighborhood Association and CRT. “It’s wonderful to have us use this ReBuild grant and take part in remaking our communities.”
As the project moves forward, residents in the seven neighborhoods will be able to call 311 for bulky item removal requests. The CRT team is already identifying properties in need of attention and is prepared to begin work immediately.
Forest Tyson, vice president of the Oak Park neighborhood, explained the project’s grassroots origin.
“We all want to make a major impact in our neighborhoods,” said Tyson. “Through this grant, we can come together and help neighbors out.”
The initiative goes beyond mere cleanup. CRT is investing in its community members, training local residents to operate the new equipment.
“Every one of those CRT guys and gals you see can do it all,” said Tyson. “They can get on the excavator, drive the truck, and handle chainsaws and shoveling.”
This collaborative approach has caught the attention of city officials. Heather Buscher, fiscal officer for the city, praised the innovative model.
“With CRT, they actually brought a whole different type of community together,” said Buscher. “They brought seven neighborhoods together to become one project to help break down the blight in these neighborhoods.”
The project builds on previous successful collaborative initiatives, such as KC Common Good’s KC 360 Village Initiative in the Santa Fe Neighborhood. Marquita Taylor, president of the Santa Fe Area Council, highlighted this connection.
That pilot program focused a broad array of community efforts, organizations and funding on clean-up efforts in the Santa Fe Neighborhood, with a goal of reducing crime.
“The KC 360 Village model became the successful test ground that demonstrated the impact the CRT project will make, working together with adequate resources,” said Taylor.
ReBuild KC program is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.
Klassie Alcine, CEO of KC Common Good, emphasized the broader implications of this community-driven approach.
“Economic mobility is achieved when creating community, empowering neighborhoods, and improving the physical environment for parts of our city that had been disinvested in for decades,” Alcine said. “What CRT is doing is how you show up for the community.”
The grant, part of the city’s ReBuild KC program, is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act,
The collaborative spirit extends beyond the neighborhoods themselves. Arvest Bank stepped in to provide upfront funding for the excavator. Everton Neil, a community bank lender for Arvest Bank, expressed pride in supporting the initiative.
“When the community is uplifted, everybody’s uplifted,” said Neil. “A rising tide floats all boats.”
“We’ve got a lot of tools at our disposal now,” says Tyson. “We can’t thank the city enough for granting us that significant amount of money to get what we need, to do what we’ve got to do.”
