'I got a scare.' LINC/Morning Star, Truman Medical Centers double down on vaccinations

The pursuit of the unvaccinated is dogged now — “drilled-down” — as Truman Medical Centers has returned with its mobile clinic to Morning Star’s community center at 27th and Prospect Avenue for moments just like this . . .

All aboard! How you and everyone can play a role in this most critical school year

We’ve learned a lot in the past year and a half. And everything we know about hardship, strength, resilience and unity has primed us for what looms as the most critical school year probably in a lifetime. But it’s going to take all of us, and here’s why.

'Whatever children and teachers need,' GEHA team delivers for Cler-Mont Elementary

Just get all the teachers to put together a list. Then GEHA representatives Karen Rutherford and Niki Nelson said they’d take it from there. See what it means to Cler-Mont Elementary School in the Fort Osage School District.

'Teetering on crisis,' KC medical directors plea for vaccination, masking; here's how to save lives

It was a roll call of pain, fear — even death. Kansas City area medical directors shared their grim accounting with the city in a public call for help Friday, beseeching a community “teetering on a precipice” to get vaccinated and to mask-up against Covid-19’s Delta variant. The Morning Star vaccination clinic is stepping up.

Making our Schoolyard Gardens grow; kids' Thanksgiving harvest dreams start here

July’s sun was mounting the sky toward a 100-plus-degree heat index. But Hartman Caring Communities Coordinator Martin Jackson mopped his head with a towel and put his thoughts on Thanksgiving. By then, he said, these beds of soil LINC staff were building with the Kansas City Community Gardens will have been planted, watered and nurtured by LINC’s after-school kids.

'We see you. We hear you.' Tolbert Academy students speak to community in mural challenge

It was quite a day: Teenagers working with artists and entrepreneurs, stretching their imaginations in a mural design as broad as the community they love — and as close as the fear and joy in their hearts. Lee A. Tolbert Academy students poured their heart and soul into the Startland MECA Challenge, and now they wait.

Junius G. Groves, 'Potato King,' to be enshrined in Kansas Business Hall of Fame

Junius G. Groves, a figure well known to the annual Kansas City Black History Project for his rise from slavery to wealthy landowner and businessman, will be enshrined in the Kansas Business Hall of Fame. Groves became known as “The Potato King of the World” and one of the wealthiest African-Americans of the early 20th Century.

Seven years after Kaboom, Genesis School plans community fair, makeover in 'Project Prepare'

It’s been seven years since Genesis School and neighbors came together to build the playground provided by Kaboom! Now, the playground is in need of a makeover, and this time around Genesis is planning a community fair and rally Aug. 7 to get everyone primed and ready for the coming school year.

#GetVaccinated! Morning Star clinic opens with new hours in fight against Covid-19 Delta variant

The fight against the Covid-19 Delta variant is on in Kansas City, and LINC’s vaccination clinic with Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and Heart to Heart International is opening for walk-ins on selected Tuesday mornings beginning July 27 at 10 a.m.

Housing crisis grows as wages fall farther behind rising rents: Out of Reach 2021 report

For most low-wage workers, decent rental housing is unaffordable — nationwide and in Missouri. In no state, metropolitan area, or county in the U.S. can a worker earning the prevailing minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom rental home in a standard 40-hour work week.

Fort Osage schools to turn closed highway road stop into mecca of real-world learning

“The possibilities are endless,” said Fort Osage Superintendent Jason Snodgrass. The beloved JBZ's Rockin' B & Mercantile, closed during the pandemic, will become a student-run coffee shop and community event space across five acres of land.

'Find your community'; In critical year ahead, schools want you back, welcomed and safe

It doesn't matter how well — or not — you and your child managed Covid’s hard time. A common message is brewing. Children, however much they struggled with online learning, will be advanced with their peers into the next grade. Everyone will recover together. Schools’ plea: Just come back.

Covid-19's Delta variant stalks communities; spurs renewed call for vaccinations

For the fully vaccinated, the summer has opened wide to nearly all the activities we enjoyed before Covid-19. But for the many people in our Kansas City communities who remain unvaccinated, the Covid’s Delta variant brings an intensified threat that is putting Missouri at the top of the list for the rate of Covid deaths and hospitalizations.

Kansas City Public Schools' anti-suspension policy takes stand for equity, prosperity

The Kansas City Public Schools took a stand against historical injustice and the school-to-prison pipeline when its board voted to end discretionary suspensions of elementary school children Wednesday night.

LINC, Morning Star clinic partners bid bittersweet goodbye to Missouri National Guard

Just like the entire vaccination mission itself, the send-off party for the Missouri National Guard was overwhelming. More than 100 people gathered on the Guard’s last day, June 15, to celebrate the work they did with a host of community partners to deliver more than 30,000 Covid-19 vaccines — most of them with LINC at the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church’s community center, serving underserved and vulnerable neighborhoods of east Kansas City.

On your marks! LINC's summer session takes off

There’s a serious side to summer after-school programs now. There’s increased attention to academic skills coming out of the pandemic. And an awareness of children’s social and emotional well-being after so much separation and so many families still hurting. But this is still summer. And LINC’s not going to let kids down now.

The way out of violence: Give youthful courage and grace the reins

I believe we all know who truly has to make this happen – and it’s not us. As a place-holder name, I’m calling for a new generation of “peace ambassadors.” But I expect that the young people who are going to lead us – tweens, teenagers and 20-somethings – will give this campaign their own name. Their own power.

LINC remembers 15-year-old Terrell Bell, lost in gun violence

Terrell was tall and strong, a football player at Ruskin High School. He played basketball for LINC’s team at Symington, and was a drummer on LINC’s raucous drum line at Smith-Hale. “It’s disheartening, all this potential,” his LINC site coordinator said. “He touched so many people. We all were rooting for him.”

Missouri National Guard's unforgettable Covid-19 vaccination mission: 'Task Force Freedom'

This wasn’t like some of their past service in the Missouri National Guard, plucking flood-marooned families from their rooftops, or supporting police forces during civil unrest, or medical support on military convoys in Iraq. “Task Force Freedom” was a fight against Covid-19 right here, at home, and it was unforgettable.

'Eat Local KC' interactive map connects families to healthy food

Fans of Kansas City’s local food community have a new way to find farms, markets, restaurants and retailers near them with a brand new tool, the Eat Local KC map.