Civic Engagement

Across Johnson and Wyandotte counties, more than 127,000 voters cast ballots Nov. 2 in local races ranging from mayoral seats to city councils to school boards.

Recently, the Kansas City Council passed a resolution recognizing the work of MORE2 to engage and register people in Kansas City with misdemeanor or felony convictions. Kansas City is the first municipality in Missouri to pass such a resolution.

For years, Kansas City has been a destination for refugees and new immigrants, largely because of the work of three resettlement agencies: Jewish Vocational Service, Della Lamb Community Services and Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. As the region prepares to receive significant numbers of refugees after several years of restricted admissions, KC for Refugees and the other agencies are sharing multiple ways for people to get involved.

In the past, resettlement agencies usually had two or three weeks to get a family set up. But with many of the emergency evacuations from Afghanistan over the past month, this process has been shortened to just 48 to 72 hours. “It’s going to be crazy, which is why we need help,” Danilo Aguilar said.

Engagement from residents is a crucial part of the comprehensive plan — but because the pandemic prevented in-person community outreach last year, the department is seeing disparities in the residents participating in the process.

Putting together the comprehensive plan is a multi-year process that began in 2019. The planning department is currently in the engagement process, soliciting input from residents. The final step — city council adopting the finished plan — is set to take place in mid-2022.

In the months that all 10 locations were closed, staff members turned to digital initiatives like expanding Wi-Fi access to parking lots outside branch locations, increasing the library system’s capacity to loan out computers and Wi-Fi hotspots for free and starting a tech access support program to teach digital skills to people of all ages.