community engagement

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.

Even in the highest turnout years, a third of the eligible voters in Kansas stay home. A nonpartisan group of voter advocates is working to close that gap by nudging their families, friends, book clubs and exercise buddies to get to the polls.

In last year’s election for mayor, county commission and other Wyandotte County races, 11 of the 337 people who were eligible voted in one section of the 2nd Precinct. But it wasn't because they don't care, as non-voters are often portrayed. They have reasons for staying home on Election Day.

A recent Pew Research Center study estimated that 36.2 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in 2024, making them the largest racial or ethnic minority voting bloc in the United States. As Latino communities in the Kansas City metro grow in size, advocacy groups and supportive elected officials are working to educate and empower potential voters.

At community listening sessions and in stories about the city's violence problem, we gained some new perspectives on a polarizing and seemingly intractable problem.

Residents of the Westside neighborhood say that gentrification — like the upcoming Pennway Point entertainment district — is forcing the Latino community out of the neighborhood with rapidly-rising property taxes.

Troost Avenue is known as Kansas City’s dividing line, long associated with the city’s history of racial segregation and slavery. But as new residents move in and more businesses open, the community balances optimism and fear of gentrification.

After escaping civil war in their homeland, members of the Kunama ethnic group have found a home in Kansas City, Kansas. After seeing some youths get into trouble, Abraham Atu started a soccer team to steer them the right way.

KCUR's community engagement team is holding listening sessions and interviews across Kansas City, as part of a year-long initiative to learn how diverse Kansas Citians feel about guns and the rising rates of gun violence, and to hopefully find solutions to the issue.

The Kansas City Royals hope to build a new downtown ballpark and entertainment district. Community residents say they should have input and establish an agreement to protect future workers.