Kala Stroup wondered whether certain donors ought to be held as accountable to their communities as the recipients are. “An awful lot of foundations. . . play it almost too close to safety in terms of their own self-perpetuation,” said Stroup, “and do not really invest in our community at a time when our communities need it the very, very most.”

Kansas City Focus

As Jaclyn Steiner noted, several don-ors have expressed an interest in investing their resources in the Kansas City region, Stowers being a case in point. She asked her colleagues if they were seeing a geographic focus from their donors and, if so, how focused was it.

Peter Yelorda saw a “Catch-22” in many of the donor programs “because often what a donor may target their giving for is not what the community needs.” At some point, he argued, philanthropies may have to come together and pressure the institutions funded by tax dollars to provide the fundamental services that they ought to be providing.

Mary Kay McPhee wondered whether there had been “a suburbanization of poverty.” As a consequence, service delivery has had to become more regional.

“It has spread,” affirmed Susan Stanton about the issue of poverty. The problem, as she sees it, is that civic leaders have become “seduced by things like Down-town revitalization and life sciences.” As a result, no one is “pounding the table’ on core issues like race and poverty.

“Our population has changed from people who came to us as homeless primarily because of situational homelessness,” attested Laura Gray, executive director of Community LINC. “We are now seeing generational poverty.”

“We do not have a kind of central feeling of responsibility for what happens here,” Sarah Rowland observed. In the

40 years she has lived here she has seen the “fragmentation” problem, aggravated by the river and the state line, grow only worse. “I do worry about this,” she ad- ded. “We have to address it as a whole.”

For Laura Norris, executive vice president with YouthFriends, the involvement of the larger metropolis is critical given that the organization has 4,000 local volunteers going into schools every week. “We have a sense of urgency around really getting the civic community to be with kids and actually spend time,” said Norris.

Education

Pat McCown asked how much of a role education, or the lack of the same, plays in perpetuating fundamental problems.

“Education is huge in this,” said Yelorda. “Education, as it relates to how our society functions, is the key to the door.” The problem as he sees it is that people like those assembled “are not forcing the engagement and the dialogue with the political leaders and the other leaders who have the ability to make our society address these problems.”

Yelorda was asked if all those who care see the problem in the same light and would respond in the same way. He responded that although there may be different solutions, “We are dependent upon the one society which we’re a part of.” He recommended that before we diversify our focus abroad or elsewhere, we solve the problems at home first.

“We have a responsibility to the next generation to help them see the relevance of being in school,” said Dan Purdom. “I think no matter what our organization is, we have that responsibility to the next generation. And some days we do that well and some days we don’t.”

Race and Related Issues

Michelle Sweeney observed that when she first moved here from Omaha nearly twenty years ago, there was obvious racial tension, but everyone was too polite to talk about it.

Indeed, of the participants at the table only Brandi Fisher with the YWCA of Greater Kansas City had cited “eliminating racism” as part of the organization’s core mission.

Sweeney suggested that people still are afraid to talk. She questioned how we get the dialogue started.

“Whatever fears or biases we have,” said Peter Yelorda, “we all live in this boat, and we’ve got to talk about it.” He observed that when we talk about racial and educational issues as though they were someone else’s problem, it removes us from accountability. That does not, however, make the problem go away.

“We are going to have to deal with this issue folks,” he added. “Can we deal with it in a proactive way or are we going to be dragged to the table to deal with it in a reactive way?”

The point was made, however, that white people lack the freedom to address tough issues the way certain black people—Bill Cosby, for example—can and do.

Yelorda did not disagree. “There are things that white people can’t say to black people, and there are things that black people can’t say to white people.”

“But white people can say those things to white people,” Yelorda continued, and black people can say those things to black people. Okay? If those are the rules of the game, then let’s be on with the dialogue. “

Mary Kay McPhee affirmed Yelorda’s point that political people talk about the Kansas City School District as if there were not twelve school districts in the city alone. “We are all affected by each other,” she countered. “Why don’t we bring the collective group to the table to talk about it?”

“The way you [make changes] is piece by piece,” concluded Jaclyn Steiner. “We must each be an agent of change and begin the conversation.”

“You may not feel like you are having that much of an impact on any given day,” added Pat McCown, “but I can tell you at least from the curbside looking in, you are.”