Harmony Project KC
Harmony Project KC logo. | File Photo

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

In early March, 2025, Harmony Project KC — a Northeast-based youth, music education program — announced in a press release its partnership with Lutheran Family and Children’s Services (LFCS) — a Missouri-wide, nonprofit social services organization — to offer free, behavioral health counseling services for its families. 

LFCS — a 150-year organization, which began as a foster care and adoption agency, has gone on to expand its services to include behavioral health and counseling — while previously primarily operating in Missouri cities including Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Joplin and Columbia, LFCS has recently expanded its agency to Kansas City — launching its behavioral health program to select institutions throughout the metro. 

Among those receiving services is the Northeast Community Center’s flagship program Harmony Project KC at 544 Wabash Ave. John Watson — supervisor of behavioral health for LFCS’s Kansas City location shared that Harmony Project KC was LFCS’s first client in Kansas City. 

While Watson said LFCS is still in its early stages in Kansas City, the organization is in the process of obtaining additional partnerships including schools within the Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS) district. 

Now housing offices at 1 E. Armour Blvd., this local branch is working to assist children in Jackson County between the ages of three and 19. 

Initial Partnership conversations between Harmony Project KC and LFCS began around November 2024 as at the time, Harmony Project KC was working with the Children’s Services Fund of Jackson County in search of a counseling partnership, Executive Director of Northeast Community Center, Kyla Pitts-Zevin shared in an interview. 

“It’s so much more than just a music program,” Pitts-Zevin said in an interview. “We also focus on the needs of our families.” 

Once LFCS and Harmony Project KC were connected, Pitts-Zevin said, the implementation process occurred quickly — allowing counseling services to commence in January 2025. 

As LFCS currently only has one therapist working at its Kansas City location, Watson shared that the counselor will work with clients at Northeast Community Center for a half day, before leaving to visit clients at nearby schools who have additionally partnered with its program. 

While this counselor is additionally available to see clients at its offices, Watson said client capacity is currently limited, until additional counselors can be added to the Kansas City branch. 

“It’s been going well; We’re just getting started,” Watson said in an interview. “We couldn’t have asked for a better beginning and initial partner.” 

It was this partnership with Northeast Community Center and Harmony Project KC, which introduced and connected LFCS with its additional KCPS clients. 

“[The kids] need to have a safe place they can trust,” Pitts-Zevin shared in reference to the location of the counseling services. “We all wanted free counseling to support the whole child and the whole family.” 

Pitts-Zevin said currently, the LFCS counselor has four appointments during its onsite visits with Harmony Project KC program participants. However, through a partnership with Latinx Education Collaborative (LEC) — a Spanish nonprofit education organization — Harmony Project KC was able to establish technology literacy education among its families to hold telehealth sessions with LFCS as well. 

“It’s wonderful, to know we have this partnership to give [our families] the support they need,” Pitts-Zevin said. 

For additional information on Harmony Project KC, LFCS and its partnership visit: https://www.necc-kc.org/ or https://lfcsmo.org/.