Thrive Awards: LISC of KC Honors Equitable Community Development

For more than 40 years, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Kansas City has hosted the Thrive Awards as a way to honor those working toward equitable and inclusive community development.

LISC is a nonprofit that coordinates and invests resources to revitalize communities. They do so by partnering with or awarding grants to groups working on the ground level. LISC KC has attracted more than $610 million in development into urban KC neighborhoods.

Late last year, the Thrive Awards – LISC’s celebration of community development – returned to celebrate those in our community who are making a difference at the Urban Youth Academy.

2023 Thrive Awards & Winners

Named after LISC’s first program director, the community development legacy award honors individuals or organizations that have made a lasting impact on our community.

Pamela Smart has been the executive director at Mt. Carmel Redevelopment Corporation (MCRC) since 2000. Smart and MCRC oversaw the development of 48 new affordable homes in a previously blighted and crime-riddled neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. They injected $28M in construction into the area targeting low to moderate-income homebuyers. They’ve also built a 61-unit senior housing facility and three transitional housing housing duplexes to assist those experiencing homelessness. 

“Everyone deserves a comfortable, safe house,” says Smart. “The thing I’m most proud of are the families that go from homeless to homeowners.” 

Smart has been instrumental in providing holistic community services, including a food pantry, a single-family homeownership program, and a transitional housing program. Smart and the MCRC also partner with the Unified Government to manage the Wilhelmina Gil Multi-service Center. The Center offers hot meals every day of the year, but also case management services, service learning opportunities, and connections to services that can help the less fortunate. 

The award honors an existing LISC KC partner who has provided leadership and collaboration to bring together diverse voices and/or resources to strengthen the community.

Jerusalem Farm is a faith-based but nondiscriminatory nonprofit that works to improve the six neighborhoods in historic northeast Kansas City, which include the city’s highest density of immigrants and refugees. The group offers beekeeping, a curbside composting program, and community gardens & orchards.

“The biggest goal of Jerusalem Farm is to be a good neighbor,” says Executive Director Jessie Schiele. 

Jerusalem Farm’s most ambitious work is its home repair program. If someone in their service area has an income of 80% or less of the median income of KC, they qualify for home repair at only the cost of materials. Jerusalem Farm will also offer a no-interest loan to pay off the cost of materials or will accept a job exchange.  Over the past two years, they have also introduced a dignified workforce program that hires workers from the Northeast, primarily refugees and immigrants, and trains them in home repair skills. 

The award honors an outstanding individual, organization, or initiative that supports individuals and/or families experiencing lower incomes as they strive to improve their long-term financial stability and create generational wealth.

G.I.F.T. started with the idea that if 15k people gave $10 a month, the Black community could jumpstart their own development. 

“It wasn’t about saving business or maintaining,” says G.I.F.T. co-founder Brandon Calloway. “It’s about improving the quality of the eastside to what we feel like it deserves.” 

Since its inception in 2020, G.I.F.T. has given out $1,237,000 in grants to Black-owned businesses in historically redlined parts of KC, particularly east of Troost. They have also given technical support and assistance to their 63 grant-awarded businesses. G.I.F.T.’s efforts have also helped create 108 new jobs, averaging over $16 an hour on the city’s east side. 

Honors an outstanding individual or organization or initiative that supports a broadly shared prosperity and opportunities for people/entrepreneurs to generate quality jobs, community wealth, or financial security. 

Curls is the Executive Director of the Prospect Business Association (PBA), which works to create a healthy urban core through business and economic development in the Prospect Ave. corridor. 

“I’m here to advocate, but let’s not underestimate the power of small local businesses,” says Curls. “We must all come together with intentionality to bring up the urban core; we all rise or we all fall.” 

Curls, through her work with the PBA, has served over 1,500 businesses over the past two and half years. During that same timeframe the PBA has helped businesses in the area secure $4.2 million in capital. 

Honors an outstanding individual, organization, or initiative that contributes significantly to the enhancement of the community, fulfills a significant affordable housing need and is the foundation for sustainable, economically vibrant, and diverse neighborhoods. 

M’Biti first started working in development as a staff member on the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, where she worked on an affordable housing project at 39th and Garfield. 

“It’s important for developers to remember that neighborhoods have their own culture; they have their own personalities,” says M’Biti. “Before you get deep into designs and concepts, you have to connect with the neighborhood to understand how you fit.”  

After her tenure at the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council, M’Biti started her own consulting firm, Accomak Development Group, where she works with nonprofits looking to develop affordable housing.