It was back-to-school week for the LINC Caring Communities sites, highlighting once more the wide array of services standing ready in LINC’s work of making stronger families together.

Forty-four of LINC’s 55 sites provide before- and after-school programming as hubs for partnering with community public schools to meet the needs of families and their neighborhoods.

LINC opened its doors to more than 8,000 children enrolled in LINC from the Kansas City Public Schools, the Hickman Mills, Grandview and Center school districts, Topping Elementary in the North Kansas City School District and Lee A. Tolbert Academy public charter school.

LINC is also providing community services in the Fort Osage School District and Genesis School, Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center, and Palestine Senior Citizen Activity Center in Kansas City.

LINC’s Caring Communities team can help families with many needs, including food assistance, rent and utility bill assistance, technology support, legal aid and defense against evictions as well as academic support.

Families and their neighborhoods also benefit from LINC’s other initiatives, including the LINC Missouri Work Assistance program that supports parents receiving state aid with career, education and other supports; the Youth Transitions program to help youths transitioning out of state and foster care build independent lives, and the Child Care Collaborative Network, which provides training and ongoing support to the staff and leadership of child care centers in Missouri to strengthen their capacity to provide healthy, nurturing and safe care for children.

The opening of the before- and after-school programs refreshes the work, with familiar families and new families.

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