PROGRAM SUMMARY Public and Private Agencies, Model Cities Day Care Corporation Kansas City, Mo., Police Department Community Services Department Concentrated Employment Neighborhood Planning Group HDCIC Parks and Recreation Department Kansas City General Hospital Human Resources Corporation Volunteer Adult Tutoring National Welfare Rights Organization Public Works Department U.S. Trade Schools, Inc. Carver Neighborhood Center Health Department Richard Cabot Clinic Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority Neighborhood Planning Groups ་ A NEW PARTNERSHIP A NEW PARTNERSHIP Kansas City Model Cities seeks to be a different kind of government agency. ⚫ Its goals are within reach. Its method is planning-then action. Its program is designed by the people it serves. Model Cities plans, co-ordinates, and evaluates an effort to improve the quality of urban life. Using the city as a workshop, it attempts to build a model-a pattern-of public and private efforts especially tailored to Kansas City's needs. Those needs are not dictated by desk men, but are delineated by the citizens and government, working together in partnership. The citizens, aided by urban specialists, also suggest solutions which are incorporated in Model Cities projects. Finally, Model Neighborhood residents have the responsibility of working with government as partners in carrying out these projects. Without citizens participating in the total effort, Model Cities will fail. With them, it cannot help but succeed. By the mid-Sixties it became apparent that the cities of America were in serious trouble, despite federal, state, and local governmental programs designed to relieve the causes of urban deterioration: poverty, crime, unemployment, the middle-class exodus to the suburbs, and the rest. So the Demonstration Cities Act of 1966 was passed by Congress to create the Model Cities Program The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was empowered to launch this broad creative approach to urban problems. Rather than by-passing local governments, HUD was to work closely with mayors and city councils Rather than initiating another single project program directed toward one functional problem, HUD was to administer a flexible approach to link related programs. Rather than imposing theories on citizens, HUD was to listen to the voice of the people in each of the Model Cities Kansas City was among the first 63 cities chosen to begin this exciting experiment. The planning effort here officially began in August, 1968, when James I. Threatt assumed his duties as executive director of Kansas City Model Cities. Major Model Cities functions include monitoring program administration, program planning, program evaluation, and business management and accounting. These activities are reflected in the staff. Major responsibilities for monitoring, planning, and evaluation is assigned' to program specialists in each of the functional areas, such as health, recreation, economic development, and so forth. Seven areas were designated as the Model Neighborhoods: the West Side (Area 1), the inner city (Areas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D), Dunbar (Area 3 and Columbus Park (Area 4), and they were incorporated and funded for planning by Kansas City Model Cities. By action of the City Council, $10,000 was allocated to each NPG for the planning period. Each NPG was able to retain expert planning assistance of its own choice. Then began hard work, evenings and weekends without pay, seeking a common goal NPGs divided into functional committees for sach of 10 major fields of concern: municipal services and facilities; health, housing: transportation, welfare and social services, education, crime, delinquency and administration |