Success Stories

Kansas City Arts Institute (KCAI) recently received a grant for $30,000 from the Francis Family Foundation to support the KCAI Annual Fund, which helps bridge the gap between student tuition and the actual cost of educating each student. The Annual Fund finances 8% of the KCAI operating budget, and it helps to support institutional scholarships, student aid, and our programs like the B.F.A. curriculum, Continuing Education, the Artspace, and the Current Perspectives Lecture Series. The funding from the foundation will help provide a one-of-a-kind educational experience for KCAI students and enhance program offerings for our art and design community.

Developing Potential, Inc. recently received a grant for $7,500 from the Greater Lee’s Summit Healthcare Foundation to purchase two patient transfer arm recliners, a Pegasus massage chair, three flexible massagers, and a tactile solutions box. The recliners, massage chair, and flex massagers encourage comfort, relaxation, and joint stress relief. The tactile solutions kit encourages healthy development of sensory input processing pathways and encourages wellbeing through increased environmental engagement. Nearly all participants at the Lee’s Summit site are residents of the greater Lee’s Summit area. This aligns with GLSHF’s mission to enhance the health and wellbeing of the greater Lee’s Summit area.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City (BGCKC) recently received a grant for $823,368 from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 21st Century Community Learning Centers to provide youth development and academic improvement opportunities to middle school students at Clifford H. Nowlin Middle School.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City (BGCKC) was recently awarded a $754,083 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 21st Century Learning Centers to create a new afterschool site at Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy (LATCA).

YMCA of Greater Kansas City was recently awarded a $150,000 grant, over 3 years from the Best Buy Teen Tech Center to launch a Best Buy Teen Tech Center and offer programming designed for teenagers to learn in a non-traditional way, with training in Music, Multimedia, Video, Graphics, Digital Photography, Engineering and Animation. Teens will leverage technology to develop projects based on their own interests such as creating art; producing music and animations; designing their own science simulations and mobile applications; writing and illustrating interactive poetry, stories and films; building kinetic sculptures and robotic constructions; and designing their own 3D worlds and games. These interactive learning spaces will help teens explore technology to discover new interests, collaborate with one another and prepare for the future.

Wichita Children’s Home (WCH) was recently awarded a $150,000 grant from the Department Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Street Outreach Program to provide prevention and intervention services to runaway, homeless, and street youth who have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and severe forms of trafficking in persons.

Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity (THHFH) recently received a grant for $100,000 from the Department for Housing and Urban Development (HUD)Habitat for Humanity International Capacity Grant to support a new, full-time Aging In Place (AIP) Coordinator. THHFH will hire a new, full-time Aging In Place (AIP) Coordinator to assist with increasing the portfolio of family services available and help relieve some of the administrative burden of the construction team (intake, paperwork, contracts, assessments, and other reporting). The position will not have any construction duties, only administrative and home assessment duties. This new position is critical to increasing operational efficiency, expanding needed services for our clients, and capitalizing on partnership opportunities.

The YMCA of Greater Kansas City recently received a grant for $1,398,244 from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education21st Century Community Learning Centers to deliver high-quality academic afterschool programming (Y Club) at two locations within the Center School District in Kansas City, Missouri. This includes enhanced before/afterschool programming at the Red Bridge Elementary School (a 21st CCLC site in Cohort 8 with enhanced behavioral and social-emotional learning supports) and the establishment of a new afterschool program for sixth graders at Center Middle School where no program has ever existed.