community engagement

A simple concept from Kansas City is sweeping the country. Planting fruit trees on vacant lots and making the produce free to anyone has cascading positive effects for the community. Now, more than a million people live within walking distance of a Giving Grove orchard.

For years, Soakie's in downtown Kansas City was one of the only Black gay bars in the United States. The bar closed in 2004, as development began on the Power & Light District, but a new historical marker remembers its impact.

Located just north of the Missouri River, North Kansas City has grown by more than 20% since 2020. Mayor Jesse Smith says it’s time to make updates while maintaining the community’s “small-town feel.”

The Kansas City Plan Commission unanimously blocked a motion for a 384-foot data center on top of a historic building in the Quality Hill neighborhood. Community groups want a total ban on future data centers.

Data centers are on the fast track in communities across the Midwest and Great Plains, but rising concerns over water, energy and noise leave lawmakers rushing to catch up. Plus: Supporters and opponents are debating a proposed data center in southwest Kansas.

Kansas City recently lost a beloved face in local news. Cynthia Newsome, a long-serving anchor and reporter for KSHB 41, passed away on Tuesday following a yearslong battle with cancer. One journalist she mentored, KSHB reporter Rae Daniel, spoke with KCUR’s Up To Date about Newsome’s impact on our city.

The Kansas City Public Library announced a "Strategic Plan" to meet community needs, funded by a new grant. Anyone can weigh in on what they want it to include.

As part of Kansas City's efforts to explore how to reconnect the predominantly Black neighborhoods that were split by the construction of Highway 71, local artists are using their talents to visualize people's ideas.

The Giving Grove, a nonprofit that works with residents of under-resourced communities to grow orchards, will translate their educational gardening materials into 12 different languages. Non-English speaking communities face barriers to accessing the free fruit and nuts because information has been printed only in English.

An estimated 41 million members of Generation Z became eligible to vote in 2024. In Missouri, millennial and Gen Z college students have been working to get these young potential voters registered and prepared to cast a ballot. Together, they’ve put in hundreds of hours of work on everything from statewide initiatives to experiments with individuals.

Happy Halloween! This fall, volunteers at Kansas City’s historic Union Cemetery have been giving attention to hundreds of long-neglected gravestones. Plus: Republican Mike Kehoe and Democrat Crystal Quade are both campaigning to become Missouri’s next governor. How will the issue of abortion influence the vote?

A group of Johnson County volunteers wants to boost voter turnout by encouraging their social networks to reach out to their friends and neighbors with election reminders. Plus: One of the closest elections in Missouri this fall is the race for attorney general, where incumbent Republican Andrew Bailey is facing Democrat Elad Gross.