Foundation Journal

KKFI 90.1 FM, Kansas City's community radio station is holding the "Spring into Summer" on-air fund drive from June 2-12, 2011. This is the time to share your financial support for a 22-year-long experiment in community building. I was reminded of the importance of Community Radio in Kansas City while watching the highly-acclaimed documentary film "I AM" this past weekend. The film, which features Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Lynne McTaggart, and the late Howard Zinn, answered two questions: "What's wrong with the World?" and "What can I do about it?" KKFI T-shirt for $90 donation to the station. The film portrayed society out-of-balance because of the "insane" quest for wealth and goods beyond a person's needs. The film made a case for critical thought and action to address the problem, indicating the best approach to solve the problem is by many people taking small, seemingly individual actions. Many ne

Food banks traditionally have operated under the premise of providing temporary food assistance to low-income and working poor families. The economic crisis, which started in 2007, caused a significant increase in families and individuals seeking food assistance from job loss and foreclosure. Food pantries served by Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank, saw a 40% increase in food distribution. This dire situation has evolved into a chronic condition with as much as 25% of people in communities seeking food assistance from various sources like pantries, soup kitchens, and Food Stamps/SNAP benefits. The economic crisis has shifted the need from extremely poor to working poor people. If a chronic condition of hunger in the U.S. is not enough to convince people to change their perception of the growing need for food assistance, then a devastating tornado season may help people understand the need for government assistance. A recent account by a USDA public relations worker sha

From left: Jono Anzalone with FEMA and Karen Haren, with Harvesters. A press conference was held at Harvesters food bank in Kansas City on Thursday, May 26, 2011 with Jono Anzalone, Regional Voluntary Agency Liaison with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Margaret Larson, Disaster Services Specialist with the Feeding America, and Karen Haren, president of Harvesters. At least two television stations and a reporter with the Kansas City Star were in attendance. Anzalone emphasized the importance of working through designated agencies like Harvesters to deliver assistance most effectively. He stated that 6000 people have registered to volunteer at Missouri Southern State University, the Joplin tornado relief coordination site. The influx of concerned people was straining the resources of the very community that was dealing with devastation from the tornado. He further encouraged people to donate money to organizations designated by the state of Missour i  or register

Another Spring season tornado hit in Sedalia, Missouri on May 25, 2011, three days after another tornado ripped through Joplin, Missouri. Sedalia is the town where my father and other family members lived going back to the late 1800's. Fortunately the tornado struck south of the city in the less populated part of town. In an article appearing on the Sedalia Democrat newspaper website, Dave Clippert with the Sedalia-Pettis County Emergency Management Agency shared information about where to go for support and services: ...a reunion center and temporary shelter has been established at the First United Methodist Church Celebration Center, 1701 W. 32nd Street. He said the center would act as a shelter “for the next few days until Red Cross is able to get things put together and help place people in more permanent shelter.” Here's a map that shows the tornado path and family connections to Sedalia. View Sedalia Connection in a larger map

A line snakes down the street as people line up outside Birmingham's Boutwell Auditorium seeking supplemental food assistance offered people who suffered losses in the April 27, 2011, tornadoes in Alabama. (The Birmingham News/Michelle Campbell) Today I had several people ask what they could do to help people affected by the Joplin tornado devastation. One person responded that "mercifully" no one he knew lived in Joplin, but he was concerned about providing disaster relief. Food Relief and Action Center documented two recent cases -- in Alabama and North Dakota -- where victims of storms were provided food assistance through the SNAP/Food Stamps program. The Alabama case show one example of the quickest way to provide relief is through the government program; a keen way to shared responsibility to disaster relief. 500 county health workers were needed to process SNAP benefit applications, which shows how great the need for basic food assistance is in t

There is an urgent need for disaster relief for victims of the Joplin tornado that struck Sunday, May 22, resulting over 116 deaths. Currently Harvesters is preparing a delivery of bottled water. Harvesters is working with Feeding America, the national network of food banks, and the Missouri Food Bank Association, both of which focus on disaster relief, when needed. Harvesters food bank in Kansas City works through the state emergency management agency, collecting and distributing food and supplies as requested.

The selection of Kansas City, Kansas as the area to build a high-speed network has been widely celebrated in this area, yet raises questions about how it will address a "digital divide" that limits residents' affordable access to the Internet. photo from the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program site depicting a training class. Several news reports by local and national media outlets reinforced the importance to the local economy and development, like the March 30, 2011 editorial in the Kansas City Star , "Believe it: This is a big deal in an era when Internet speed is key to productivity in business, medicine and education." While the Star cheers the announcement another report a day before and one by Mary Sanchez described the demise of a statewide education network that benefited 400 Kansas schools. These two merging activities show the risk to lack of planning or oversight to technology: the expansion of the digital divide for low-income an

I woke last night about 3 a.m. with clenched fists, the kind of tension that made me think if I had actually been sleeping for the last 4 hours since going to bed. There are plenty of events or situations in one's life to get upset or stressed over: a collapsed light pole left unattended and increased dumping in the Dunbar residential neighborhood near work in Kansas City; half the houses leveled, some recently bulldozed, on a friend's block on Brooklyn; shrinking payrolls and teacher layoffs due to state budget deficits; a car driver not giving me clearance on a morning run through residential streets; US admonishing the Mideast nations to not engage in violence to solve problems despite engaging in this approach for years; a co-worker's description of being blacklisted by police from traveling in his old Paseo corridor neighborhood; or a KC city council candidate describing police intimation driving through his own neighborhood. Any one of these problems could raise a p

Mary Sanchez, writing for the Kansas City Star on May 4, 2011, highlighted the predicament former Missouri drug convicts face when trying to live outside prison walls. Missouri is one of nine states where a person can commit murder, rape, aggravated assault, armed robbery, any number of violent crimes and, after serving time, still be allowed food stamps. But be an ex-felony drug offender? No way. Those folks have a lifetime ban on receiving food stamps. This item was part of the Missouri legislative session in 2009 when Missouri food assistance advocates visited Jefferson City. Legislators just couldn't do the right thing and remove this burden from people that have paid their time for the crime. Sanchez makes a good case for allowing former felons to receive the food assistance benefit. Providing the benefit would allow these people to lead a somewhat dignified life as they find employment, housing, and other basic services. She argues that providing access to this essent

This case study documents the solution to provide an interactive, online ability for conference organizers to collect workshop proposals, conference registrations and payments, along with sponsorship requests. My role on the project included branding, designing and building the website, as well as writing content for the conference, such as news releases, event flier, and webpage content. Additionally, my work included testing and integrating the website online payment with PayPal for registration. Overview KKFI 90.1 FM community radio and Friends of Community Media in Kansas City will host the national 15th Grassroots Radio Conference on August 18-21, 2011. The conference offers community radio producers and promoters a chance to connect with each other, learn new skills, and discuss media issues. Conference organizers agreed to work with a solution that would allow conference presenters and participants to sign up for activities online, which reduces the difficulty of man