On Thursday, June 15, Community Builders of Kansas City President and CEO Emmet Pierson joined IFF Executive Director for the Southern Region Stephen Westbrooks at Junior Achievement of Greater Kansas City for a conversation about what community development can look like in Kansas City. At “What IFF… we did development [...]
Neighborhood associations are vital to Community Builders of Kansas City’s stakeholders. Beyond fostering a strong sense of community, they advocate for better housing, reduced crime and economic opportunity. This article is the second of a two-part series featuring just a few of the many important and innovative works of Key [...]
Neighborhood associations are vital to Community Builders of Kansas City’s stakeholders. Beyond fostering a strong sense of community, they advocate for better housing, reduced crime and economic opportunity. This article is part of a two-part series and features just a few of the many important and innovative works of two [...]
If you haven’t heard of IFF yet, you likely will soon. IFF, headquartered in Chicago, is the Midwest’s largest community development financial institution (CDFI) and has been the behind-the-scenes driver of some crucial nonprofit development projects in Kansas City. In 2020, IFF named Community Builders of Kansas City President and [...]
Having a bank account, or being banked, provides many benefits: bank accounts are safer, more convenient and cost less than other ways of accessing cash like cashier’s checks and check cashing services. Studies have shown that being unbanked or underbanked is associated with poor saving behavior, poor financial planning and [...]
Emmet Pierson, Jr., has joined the national board of IFF, a pre-eminent financial and development services provider of under-capitalized nonprofits. Established in 1988, IFF is the largest Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in the Midwest having made more than $1.1 billion in loans between 1988 and 2020. “IFF has been [...]
By Emmet Pierson, Jr. The coronavirus pandemic exposed extreme disparities in housing options and availability for our working class and disadvantaged populations. In many neighborhoods across the country, lack of access to quality housing is an unofficial “state of emergency” with no clear direction of how to address the problem. [...]
Community Builders of Kansas City is in its final phase of development to install public access 1-2 gig Wi-Fi on its Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard headquarters campus. The $125,000 project is an advocacy investment by the minority-led nonprofit organization to help address the urban core’s digital divide. It [...]
Community Builders of Kansas City led the pursuit which has secured funding for the feasibility study required by the city on the installation of pedestrian crossings along the newly renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard “Out of a 2017 Swope Parkway/Blue Parkway Feasibility Study, residents identified safe pedestrian crossings [...]
Imagine if you could do one small thing that would help life get back to pre-pandemic normal, or even some semblance of normal. Well, you can. By getting vaccinated, you are doing your part to help your family, friends and work life return to how we used to live. [...]