Technology on the second floor of the Garrison Community Center, now available for community access. | Photo by Julia Williams

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

Vehicles overflowed the parking lot Thursday morning, Jan. 23 at Columbus Park’s Garrison Community Center (1124 E. Fifth St.) as Northeast residents, the City of Kansas City and representatives from Google Fiber, Literacy KC and Urban Technology Empowered Communities (TEC), among others gathered to witness the ribbon cutting and grand opening of Garrison’s computer and technology center. 

This now accessible, free internet space  — located on the second floor of Garrison Community Center — which holds Thinkpad desktop computer equipment as well as headphones for each station, was made possible through partnerships with the City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Services department, Google Fiber and two local nonprofit organizations, Literacy KC and Urban TEC. 

A press conference commenced Thursday’s festivities, with various sandwiches, snacks and a cake courtesy of Thelma’s Kitchen — a community, vegetarian-friendly cafe along Troost Avenue. 

Awards were presented by the City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Services Department for members of Urban TEC, Literacy KC and Google Fiber for their contributions to the project. 

“The neighborhood department’s vision is to provide resources and opportunities for neighborhoods to thrive and grow and just expand and just be the best they can be,” Director for the Neighborhood Services department, Forrest Deckard said in a press conference, Thursday. 

Among project contributors was Rachel Hack Merlo, lead of Google Fiber central region government and community affairs. 

Hack Merlo, a former Northeast resident herself, said she was approached nearly six months ago by a current Columbus Park resident who felt Garrison Community Center was in need of a digital literacy and internet space. While it was her personal connection to the neighborhood, which kick-started the project, she said it was the partnerships that were obtained with Literacy KC and Urban TEC, which helped make this center possible. 

Through this collaboration between Literacy KC — a program focused on cultivating literacy for all people through fostering support and community partnerships — and Urban TEC — an organization working to provide digital literacy to students as well as increase technology within Urban areas — this technology space will be free and accessible to all members of the  community.

“These are the people experiencing the same great area I grew up in; It’s a real privilege to work on this project,” Hack Merlo said in an interview, Thursday. “Northeast has changed a lot, but [the community] always looks out for one another.” 

Following the press conference, project team leaders along with attendees climbed the stairs to the second floor of the community center for the reveal. 

Members from City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Department Division, Literacy KC, Urban TEC and Google Fiber stood together before the sparkled red ribbon with craft scissors ready as they prepared to open the space to the public.   

“This is really a great project,” Deckard said in this press conference, Thursday. “That kind of collaboration with multiple groups to bring something, to bring a resource to this area, [I’m] real happy about it.” 

Smiles broke onto faces as the ribbon was cut and fell and the crowd was invited to view the latest edition in what City of Kansas City Neighborhood Services Digital Equity Office Manager, Jerry Buckman referred to as “Kansas City’s continued beacon for innovation.” 

 “We want to highlight Garrison, but this is not the end of it,” Buckman said in a press conference, Thursday. “Our intentions are to make sure that every citizen in Kansas City and resident of Kansas City Missouri has access to the internet, has some type of literacy, computer literacy training and has access to the internet.

The Garrison Community Center is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday. The center is closed on Sunday’s. For additional information on The Garrison Community Center and its new space, visit https://kcparks.org/places/garrison-community-center/.