|
|
Greetings!
This is the October 1st edition of a weekly report to the LINC Commission. Our board is deeply interested in our work and wanted to learn about -- and share with others -- the great things LINC is helping to accomplish.
|
|
LINC sites begin planning for Lights On Afterschool
Planning for the Oct. 21 Lights On Afterschool celebration is in full force with events big and small planned at the LINC Caring Communities sites in our seven partner school districts and other locations.
Over 36 events are planned in our community, representing one of the largest local efforts in this national celebration. For a full list, visit www.kclinc.org/lightson.
Site plans include a wide range of activities and themes. Some examples include reading, safety, health, family fun, balloon releases and much more.
LINC will share a more formal invitation with LINC Commissioners with the hope that they can drop by a school or event that evening.
|
LINC makes its presence felt in Hickman Mills; neighborhood clean-up and community picnic
LINC is expanding its community presence in the Hickman Mills School District through broader engagement with families and neighborhoods including neighborhood clean-ups and a community picnic.
Three LINC Caring Communities sites in the Hickman Mills School District participated in last Saturday's major neighborhood clean-up. The clean-up was open to residents living in the Hickman Mills School District. Residents could drop off brush, antifreeze, batteries, oil, paint, and medications at two different locations.
LINC sites involved were Johnson and Santa Fe Elementary and Smith-Hale College Preparatory 6/7 Center which was one of the drop off sites.
LINC has been supporting several other fall neighborhood clean-up projects in the area and around other LINC Caring Communities sites.
The Ingels Elementary School PTA and LINC will host a Community Picnic on Saturday, Oct. 2. The picnic will be from 11 am to 3 pm at the school located at 11600 Food Lane, Kansas City, Mo. The picnic is free. Everyone living in the surrounding neighborhoods is welcome. Several activities are scheduled throughout the day including free gifts for the first 50 in attendance, a raffle and free health screening information for all ages.
There will be free food and a variety of activities for children including inflatable rides and games. Literacy activities, with free books as prizes, will encourage reading.
There are over 1,000 students enrolled in the LINC Caring Communities Before and After School program in the school district. LINC is in eight elementary schools and one middle school.
|
Independence School District takes new approach to providing holiday assistance
The Independence School District is taking a new approach to providing holiday assistance to families in need. The district recently held a community meeting to explain the new approach and how it will address community needs.
The school district effort, known as Holiday Helpers, is organized by the Independence School District Foundation.
The district is shifting from providing holiday food baskets and gifts delivered to the home to encouraging families to volunteer time in the schools or the community. Families will receive Holiday Helper gift cards that are redeemable at participating local businesses. The approach allows parents to personally select gifts for their family members and, in doing so, promotes a greater sense of pride and dignity. The effort also will promote greater family participation in the schools and community.
LINC has 13 LINC Caring Communities sites in the school district and will support the effort.
More information is available online at www.isdholidayhelpers.net. |
LINC helps share Missouri Approach
Tim Decker, Missouri Director of the Division of Youth Services, recently presented the innovative Missouri Approach to juvenile justice in Washington, DC. Decker shared, in general, the same presentation he made at the September LINC Commission meeting.
The DC audience was the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council - www.juvenilecouncil.gov.
Copies of the DC presentation are on a new website that LINC is creating to support broader sharing of Missouri's far-reaching innovations.
The new website is www.missouriapproach.org. |
Amazing... but true
LINC Founder Bert Berkley this week attended his sixtieth class reunion for the Harvard School of Business in Cambridge, MA.
Berkley was asked to present information about LINC, which he helped create in 1991, and our approach.
Part of the presentation included talking about "community schools" and the effort to make schools the center of community, what LINC locally refers to as Caring Communities. |
LINC to host international guests
LINC will host a 10-member delegation from Serbia on Oct. 11.
The group is spending almost three weeks in Kansas City focusing on corporate social responsibility.
The trip is organized by the US Agency for International Development and the International Visitors Council of Greater Kansas City.
LINC regularly hosts international groups visiting the Kansas City area. |
KC not selected for Promise Neighborhood federal grant
Kansas City's application for one of the highly sought Promise Neighborhood federal grants was not among the 21 recently announced.
Kansas City's application focused on a set of partners serving the 64127 zip code. LINC participated in the planning process.
There were 339 applications submitted to the US Dept. of Education for one-year planning grants. Promise Neighborhoods is a new federal initiative intended to replicate the general approach taken by the Harlem Children's Zone in New York City.
Many of those receiving the Promise Neighborhood grants are involved with Coalition for Community Schools and its broader agenda of making schools the center of neighborhoods and communities. |
|
|
|
Contact Information
Brent Schondelmeyer, Director of Communications
phone: (816) 410-8350
email: bschonde@kclinc.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
