Graphic courtesy of the City of Kansas City

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

The City of Kansas City’s Neighborhood Empowerment Grant Program — which was created three years ago with a mission to increase engagement, identity and public safety strategies for Kansas City communities and neighborhoods — awarded 23 neighborhoods with funding for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year, including four neighborhoods in and around the Historic Northeast.

This grant is in collaboration with the City’s Neighborhood Empowerment Grant ordinance, which was supported by Kansas City Mayor Pro Tem Rayna Parks Shaw to allocate funds toward neighborhood associations wanting to make improvements for their residents, according to its website. 

About the Grant 

Its pilot project for the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year awarded funding to various neighborhoods across Kansas City including the Blue Valley Neighborhood Association, which allowed the organization to increase its youth job training and emergency food services as well as complete minor home repairs and beautification efforts throughout the neighborhood. 

In its second year, the 2024 to 2025 neighborhood recipients included Blue Valley Neighborhood Association, Lykins Neighborhood Association, Paseo West Neighborhood Association, Pendleton Heights Neighborhood Association, Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association and Sheffield Neighborhood Association. 

This year, the City of Kansas City offered $455,000 in funding to 23 neighborhoods across the city for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year. Of these 23 selected neighborhoods included Blue Valley, Indian Mound Neighborhood Association, Pendleton Heights and Paseo West. 

This year marked the second year Paseo West was selected as a recipient of the Neighborhood Empowerment Grant and the first for Indian Mound. 

“Council members advocated very hard and we’re very grateful to have grants and a line item in the City budget,” Paseo West Neighborhood Association President, Evie Craig shared in an interview.

This grant operates on a reimbursement basis — meaning each awarded neighborhood association is required to spend its funds and acquire receipts before they receive reimbursement. 

However, once selected applicants are notified that they are recipients, Craig said the City holds a luncheon for neighborhood associations to learn more about the implementation and financial process, which was held in June this year. 

Paseo West 

With its funding, Craig shared that Paseo West has focused on ways to bring its neighborhood and community together. Some of these include by hosting health fairs offering free vaccinations and holiday-related celebrations. 

Over the summer, Paseo West threw various events including a beat the heat party, a back to school bash and an ice cream social, which it was able to put on through Neighborhood Empowerment Grant Funding. 

An element the neighborhood association was able to add to some of its activities has included inviting local artists and live DJ’s to participate and perform. 

“All of us want to get outside of our four wall units; we want to welcome new residents and long standing residents to know [their] neighbors,” Craig said. 

In October, Paseo West will put on what is now known as its Harvest Festival — formerly Trunk or Treat — expanding its Halloween-centered event to be more inclusive of all people and all cultures, regardless of beliefs. 

The neighborhood association will additionally offer its annual Thanksgiving baskets — designed to recognize residents who have a lot on their plates. In total, these baskets provide over 290 individual $25 ALDI gift cards, offering those an opportunity to “stop and take a breath.”

As part of this year’s Neighborhood Empowerment Grant process, applicants had an opportunity to select a fiscal sponsor to partner with. Paseo West selected The Arts Asylum — a theatre production company at 824 E. Meyer Blvd. — as its sponsored-partner for this fiscal year. 

This has allowed the neighborhood association to continue to acquire local artwork through The Arts Asylum to be placed in District 9 Missouri State Senator Barbara Ann Washington’s office in Jefferson City, Mo. 

“We wanted to represent the community,” Craig shared in an interview. “We are appreciative of [Sen. Washington]; it gives us a [local] highlight there at Jefferson City.”

This selected artwork highlights four different artists and is displayed during the legislative session from January through May. These pieces, Craig shared, are additionally rotated each year. 

“We’re very grateful to the City and Council for advocating for this and allowing neighborhoods to do this,” she said. “It shows that they are listening to us.”

Indian Mound 

Indian Mound Neighborhood Association was also selected as a recipient of this year’s Neighborhood Empowerment Grant. 

Jimmy Fitzner — Indian Mound Neighborhood Association president — shared this is the first year that himself and Indian Mound has submitted an application for this grant. 

Partnering with the Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce (NEKCCoC) to serve as its fiscal sponsor for this grant, Indian Mound will utilize its awarded funding for a mural project on the west and south-facing exterior walls of the .99 Cent Bargain Market at 5304 Independence Ave. 

“We wanted to make sure we weren’t reinventing the wheel as a board in Indian Mound,” Fitzner said in an interview. “We wanted to partner with people who already had good ideas and who get stuff done.”

This partnership additionally marks the first time the NEKCCoC has directly partnered on a project with Indian Mound and a Historic Northeast neighborhood association. 

“I’m excited to see the first hard partnership with Indian Mound, a mural in the Indian Mound footprint, that will make residents really proud,” NEKCCoC President Bobbi Baker Hughes shared.  

Working with Independence Avenue Community Improvement District (CID) Urban Planner Mike Spady on the grant application process, Fitzner shared that this partnership has remained beneficial from the beginning in receiving assistance from an organization with previous experience in grant writing. 

However, once a mural was decided for Indian Mound’s application, both Fitzner and Baker Hughes shared the importance of Back Door Pottery Owner and Northeast Arts KC Treasurer Rebecca Koop’s involvement as an artist who has previously assisted in various Historic Northeast Mural projects as the NEKCCoC Business and Community Events Director including the “truck-eating” bridge project.

The idea for a mural on the Bargain Market was brewing for a while, in fact, NEKCCoC has spoken in previous years with an artist about creating a dragon — which will be a theme for its south facing wall — on the exterior of the building. However, it is with this Neighborhood Empowerment Grant that has allowed this concept to come to fruition for Indian Mound and Bargain Market Owners, Ann and Minh Luu. 

“We needed a mural in our neighborhood,” Fitzner said in an interview. “As a neighborhood association, we talked about that building and opportunities to help over there to keep that business thriving and to add to that corner.”

“The [Bargain Market] is busy on the weekends; there’s so much happening on that corner, we could not have selected a better corner,” Baker Hughes said. 

An element that drew both Indian Mound and NEKCCoC to selecting Bargain Market as the location for this mural was to deter tagging and graffiti from its location. 

“I felt bad for [Minh]; we’re pretty lenient with tags, some kids are just looking for a way to express themselves, but there was no artistic value in what was put on that building,” Fitzner said in an interview. 

Fitzner shared that this project has allowed Indian Mound to build its relationships with both NEKCCoC and the Historic Northeast business community, which are two elements that were important to both himself and the neighborhood association. 

“It tells [Minh] that we care about him and this community cares about him and that we want his business on Independence Avenue to thrive,” Fitzner said. 

However, he shared that another goal of this project is for the community and Historic Northeast visitors to know that Indian Mound supports artists, their work and self expression. 

The Bargain Market mural project is scheduled for completion by Sept. 26 — weather permitting — in time for its celebration event on Saturday, Sept. 27.