Kansas City youth run, raising money for Black United Front mentoring program
A colleague shared a press release with me this week, suggesting I write about a group here in Kansas City that's been around for decades and focuses on securing successful futures for Black youth and supporting the social and economic growth of the Black community.
My favorite part of the press release was the salutation — Asante Sana , which means thank you very much in Swahili, something I learned in 2008 when I went to teach in Nairobi, Kenya. The correct response is Karibu — you are welcome. That release about an event occurring this weekend took me back.
Perhaps it was meant to. The Simba Na Falami Youth Program is a free African-centered educational and mentoring program that teaches Black youth African history, culture, values, and perspectives along with health and physical fitness, professional and career development, self-determination, and community engagement.
On Saturday, youth members, their families, friends and others in community, will join in the Love, Exercise and Wellness for the Development of the Youth of Kansas City or L.E.W.D.Y. 3K and 5K walk and run at Swope Park starting at 10 a.m.
The Simba Na Falami Youth Program was started 40 years ago by the National Black United Front in Kansas City to empower and mentor youth across the city. And they are still doing exactly that. And as far as I'm concerned that kind of dedication to educating young people is really commendable.
Saturday's race is a celebration of the many years this group has poured into the community. And as the release says, the race is more than a race: "It is a direct expression of love, safety, and investment in the next generation of our city."
"We have been in a small knit group, but we want to expand," said Ngozi Smith, lead mentor for the youth program. "The goal is to let more people know about the work that is being done,"
Mickey Dean, one of the founders of the Kansas City group, said Saturday's run will not only be "a fun event for youth and adults alike, but it is also a fund-raiser for the program." While all the mentors are volunteers, the funds they raise allow mentors to equip participants with books and learning materials, and occasionally take the young people on educational trips.
What this group does for inner-city youth in Kansas City is, as the saying goes, priceless. The program started at the Wayne Minor public housing development in an effort to redirect some of the young men who lived there at the time.
Of course, those boys and teens are men now and some of them currently mentor the boys and girls participating in the program, others are civic leaders and business owners.
"Not all the boys who we tried to capture back then made it out," Dean said. "But a lot of them did. A lot of them grew up to be really productive. They are not all revolutionaries, but they have a different mindset about their identity as African-American people."
A little history
The National Black United Front (NBUF) was founded more than 40 years ago (originating in Brooklyn, New York) to educate youth, unite grassroots activists and elevate the concerns of Black communities including issues like reparations, prison reform, and voting rights
The general mission has always been about community building and defending civil rights. In the 80s, Kansas City's Black United Front led opposition to the city's school desegregation plan, which included busing Black children to predominantly white schools. The NBUF-KC was more interested in investing in the neighborhood schools, hiring Black teachers and principals.
The group also fought against systemic economic disinvestment in the Black community and against redlining, which restricted Black residents to the east side of the city. A practice that has cast a shadow of racism on Kansas City for decades.
To this day, the BUF continues to launch local "Buy Black" campaigns and market pop-ups around the city, presenting opportunities for Black businesses to keep capital circulating within the Black community. I hadn't really thought about it until now, but this is the same concept we see at work with groups like KC G.I.F.T., which raises money to support small Black-owned businesses and periodically hosts vendor markets at its Prospect Avenue location. G.I.F.T.'s next event is Nov. 28, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The NBUF-KC also get credit for establishing the annual city-wide recognition of Kwanzaa and the Umoja Karamu or Unity Feast.
I love that organizations like the NBUF-KC has been consistent for decades in its efforts to help improve futures for inner-city youth, especially at a time when our national leaders attempt to erase hard-fought-for freedoms and opportunities for Black and brown people.
NBUF and its teaching of identity, confidence and self-reliance, is as necessary today as it ever was, because I do believe that raising up youth who will become successful and impactful members of our greater community is a village effort. Asante Sana.
