Venessa Huskey keeps telling people – she is not a politician. She is a servant.
True, Ms. Huskey is a county legislator, representing the second district in Jackson County and currently serves as chair of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee and the Justice & Law Enforcement Committee. However, she discovered long ago that her passion is to work with and in the community.
“I do what is necessary to build the community,” she said.
Ms. Huskey saw what service can do from her earliest days. Her grandfather, Robert Taylor, was a contractor adept at all manner of building and repairs. If he knew of anyone in their neighborhood needing repairs on their home, he would volunteer his assistance.
Her mother, Nellie Vester, was a registered nurse and supervisor at the Veterans Administration Hospital. “She was not trying to be a doctor,” said Ms. Huskey, “but people in our neighborhood would come to her for things like advice, how to use a blood pressure cup or to take their temperature if they didn’t have a thermometer. I saw from my childhood how helping others can build a community.”
Ms. Huskey has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Her first paid experience in community building was working through UMKC on a Kauffman Foundation-funded program supporting grandparents raising grandchildren.
“People didn’t realize that for many grandparents in this situation, if they were in a senior living community they would have to move out because the properties did not allow children,” she said. “After the Kauffman program ended, I remember appealing to (the late) Chuck Gatson (founder of CBKC) to see if we could get funding to provide housing for these grandparents.”
While CBKC did not develop a grandparents-raising-grandchildren-specific facility it has built, renovated and/or now manages several residential communities where multi-generational families can grow together. “That is success!” Ms. Huskey added.
She retired from work as a program analyst for the Bureau of Fiscal Services at the Department of the Treasury. She also served for eight years as a neighborhood and community liaison for the city of Kansas City, Missouri.
“I am really concerned about public safety,” she said. “When I was with the city, I partnered with all six divisions of the Kansas City Police Department and did crime prevention and block watch training. Citizens felt comfortable calling me to help solve their public safety concerns.”
She wants to continue that citizen-first service in her role as a country legislator though the responsibilities and how things work are different with the county than they are with the city. “I am still called to be responsive to constituents,” she added.
One of her favorite roles is that as a commissioner of the Freedom, Justice & Courage Wall, located in the Leon Jordan Park, 31st & Benton Blvd. Individuals recognized on the wall have demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities in their efforts to enhance the quality of life in the urban community of Jackson County, Missouri.
For the last several years, Ms. Huskey has been one of the volunteers at CBKC’s annual turkey drive where turkeys and all the fixings for a Thanksgiving dinner as well as books, toiletries and flu and COVID vaccinations are given to hundreds of families in need.
She also has a heart for the arts – volunteering and enjoying programs put on by organizations including the Folly Theater, KC Rep, Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, Starlight and, as a concierge, with The Kansas City Chiefs.
Ms. Huskey knows a life of service has to be multi-generational to survive and thrive. Alongside all these matters of service is one question she keeps asking, “What can we do to get more young people involved?”