For KC Summit - Update
As an outcome from the recent For KC Summit, three action teams were formed as follows:
Church Action
Unity
Human Flourishing
Kickoff Zoom calls for each of the three action teams were held during the week of June 24. Following these calls, a series of prayer meeting were held during the week of July 8.
The data from the survey and breakout groups at the summit highlighted spiritual restoration and human flourishing as the two main areas to address. Under spiritual restoration, prayer was most often cited. In regards to human flourishing, a focus on childhood development was highlighted. Simultaneous to the For KC Summit, the KC Blueprint for Violence Prevention and Healthy Communities cited childhood development as the top priority, with enhancement of afterschool programs especially highlighted. Based on these recommendations as well as what we heard on the action team calls and prayer meetings, two main areas of focus have emerged:
Prayer - Establish a city-wide prayer movement
Action - Establish an initiative to encourage development of reading skills prior to 3rd grade
The first item strives to raise up a concert of prayer across the region. To facilitate this, we are looking to develop a city-wide prayer platform/ application that will facilitate this. The platform would increase awareness of various community prayer meetings and allow people to identify meetings that align with their preferences, geographic, calendar, topic, format, etc. It would also foster the incubation of new prayer groups. Inspired by Nehimiah, we are looking to build a digital “wall of prayer” around our city.
The second item strives to greatly expand after school reading programs to help ensure that every child has developed good reading skills early in their education. An expert at the For KC Summit cited statistics that showed when children do not have good reading skills by the time the enter third grade, they are found to lag behind for the rest of their education. Achieving this skill is critical to Human Flourishing. The Barnabas Group Kansas City will take the lead in championing a response from the business community on this. We will promote and encourage businesses and marketplace leaders to adopt a school and offer volunteer time as a reading mentor. There is a critical need in this regard. In Kansas City alone, there are currently 400 children on a waiting list to be paired with a reading mentor. Additional details on this will follow in our upcoming meetings and communications.
If you have questions or want to learn more about the For KC initiative, please contact george.commons@barnabasgroup.org