Current Year Recipients
Heralded as the “Voice of Angels” by the Kansas City Star, Allegro Choirs of Kansas City shares varied repertoire and heartfelt singing with thousands of audience members each year locally, nationally, and abroad. Since its creation in 1999, Allegro has grown from one choir of 38 to sustaining six choirs with over 200 singers. Today, we introduce our newest initiative: Grow Your “Voice”: A Life Skills & Leadership Initiative for Young Women.
Through mentorship, immersive retreats, leadership workshops, leadership opportunities, and scholarship-supported access, “Grow Your Voice” equips girls in our two treble choirs, ages 8–18, with the skills to enhance their individual “voice” and thrive—on stage and in life. This is more than music education. It is character development, community building, and empowerment through song. Allegro is dedicated to enriching, inspiring, and transforming the lives of young singers through excellence in leadership, confidence-building, and team work braided with extraordinary instruction and performance opportunities. From staff to the newest of our performers and everywhere in between, excellence is a pursuit, hard work is a privilege, and every moment is magical. If you love to sing and want to be challenged, your voice will find a “home” in Allegro!
Amethyst Place is the product of community leaders banding together in 1989 to help single mothers and their children overcome damaging generational cycles of substance use. Due to lack of safe housing after treatment, these women had no choice but to return to the same communities where their substance use began, threatening their recovery and the stability of their families. Founded in May 2000 by task force members, Amethyst Place has filled this gap for 25 years and has been home to over 400 families, including over 800 children.
Their Noble Cause is to inspire transformational healing and empower generations of women and children to achieve recovery, reunification, and resilience. Entering the program, families are unhoused, most children are in foster care, and moms are in early recovery. Yet annually, through their long-term supportive housing program at 28th and Troost, they help over 150 women and children overcome the interconnected cycles of poverty, trauma, and substance use to achieve multi-generational impact.
Giving the Basics provides the necessities of life, not covered by government assistance programs, that most people take for granted such as laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products and other personal care hygiene items. As Kansas City’s hygiene hub, Giving the Basics assures that adults and children in the metro area have access to what they need to be clean and live with improved health, hope and dignity.
GIRLS ON THE RUN of GREATER KANSAS CITY
Girls on the Run is a physical
activity-based, positive youth development program that uses fun running games and dynamic discussions to teach social-emotional life skills to girls in 3rd to 8th grade. During the eight-week program, girls participate in lessons that build confidence, teach emotional intelligence and foster positive friendships while they prepare for an end-of-season celebratory 5K event.
The work of InterUrban ArtHouse is to empower local and regional artists to thrive, and by doing so, to enrich lives and communities through the arts across diverse artforms and cultures. The ArtHouse achieves this by providing an affordable, sustainable, inclusive environment for artists to work and prosper, as well as through the delivery of our research-based arts programs addressing arts business development and income opportunities, public arts engagement, K-12 enrichment and career exploration, and holistic wellness through arts participation and human connection.
Kansas City Ballet is the flagship dance company in the five-state region. The Ballet’s vision is outstanding dance experiences accessible to all. The mission is to inspire and engage through the beauty, power, and passion of dance. More than 60,000 people experience outstanding dance through performances by our professional dancers, training in our school and community that engage and educate.
At Kansas City Community Gardens, we believe that all of our neighbors – regardless of their income or the neighborhood where they live – should be able to enjoy fresh, delicious food. Gardens provide a simple, sustainable solution in neighborhoods where grocery stores are scarce and budgets are tight.
For 40 years, KCCG has empowered and inspired low-income households, schools and community groups across Kansas City to cultivate food-producing gardens and orchards. We proudly support a city-wide network of more than 800 school and community garden and orchard sites and 3,300 home orchards, helping to put healthy foods on the tables of more than 48,000 Kansas City households each year!
Madam President Camp is a leadership and civic engagement development program that empowers middle school girls to discover their voices, build confidence, and see themselves as leaders in their schools and communities. Through hands-on activities, mentorship, and experiential learning, campers explore leadership, communication, activism, and self-discovery while learning how government and civic systems work and how they can influence them. Madam President Camp creates an inclusive, supportive environment where middle school girls develop the skills, courage, and sense of belonging needed to participate fully in civic life and shape a brighter future.
Founded in 1894, Mattie Rhodes
Center (MRC) empowers, advocates for, and connects the diverse communities, families, and individuals we serve in Greater Kansas City. Most of MRC’s participants are Spanish-speaking immigrants living in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast and Westside, two neighborhoods that experience multiple social risk factors, including violence, poverty, low educational attainment, unemployment, and homelessness. MRC programming addresses these social determinants of health by providing needed services to build social cohesion, promote economic stability, and develop access to education, healthcare, and affordable housing. The agency serves over 15,000 participants each year in the areas of community behavioral health, youth development, emergency assistance, community economic development, and cultural arts.
The Northeast Community Center (NECC) serves the growth, development and education of the diverse Historic Northeast in Kansas City, Missouri. 
Harmony Project KC (
HPKC), the flagship program of NECC, harnesses the transformative power of music to increase access to higher education for underserved students by removing systemic barriers to achievement through academic and social support. The Northeast Community Center utilizes the universal language of music to develop young musicians and minds, partner with families, and build community in Kansas City. Music may be how children enter the doors, but once they are here, it is so much more. Our vision is that in a neighborhood with 25+ languages spoken, music is the universal language. It is the vehicle to growing a stronger community with thriving families through increased access to prevention services focused on the well-being of children.
Pawsperity, formerly known as The Grooming Project, opened in 2016 in the heart of Kansas City to provide struggling parents with training in the in-demand, high pay trade of pet grooming. By combining wraparound support services and life skills
coursework with grooming training, Pawsperity helps adults remove their barriers to employment and find stability in a new career. To date, over 100 adults living in poverty have completed the program, with 100% of them having employment offers upon graduation. They make an average starting salary of $41,000, with many earning $60,000 or more. The comprehensive nature of Pawsperity’s program gives students the skills, experience, and support they need to change their children’s futures quickly, with many moving from poverty to self-sufficiency in under two years.
Pharmacy of Grace is a non-profit 
charitable pharmacy in Kansas City, KS. We are a full-service pharmacy open to all, but our focus is serving uninsured and underinsured patients and helping them access affordable medications. Uninsured and underinsured patients access medications at a deep discount thanks to our Grace Meds program. These low-cost medications help patients stay on their medications long-term to ensure positive health outcomes. We also offer medication consultations with patients to ensure a better understanding of why and how to take their medications. This leads to better health outcomes for our patients.
Rightfully Sewn is a Kansas City nonprofit organization that creates jobs and opportunities for community members who may have barriers to employment, this is accomplished through the business of fashion and
sewn goods. Rightfully Sewn’s Seamstress Training Program is a ten-week workforce training unit that opens up the possibility of full-time, well paying jobs for individuals who have obstacles to employment. Participants will be identified through relationships with over 20 social service agency partners, with a focus on women receiving services from domestic violence shelters. The program covers basic sewing techniques, industrial sewing machine operations, fiber and fabrics, pattern and layout, body measurements, safety, machine maintenance, and production methods. Upon finishing the program, graduates are connected with open seamstress positions at a Seamstress Jobs Fair.
The Sewing Labs (TSL) empowers
individuals in Kansas City to overcome unemployment, low wages, and housing insecurity through the art of sewing. Its Sewing Salon Training Program (SSTP) is a 30-week U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship that teaches industrial sewing skills and connects graduates to living wage careers in manufacturing and fashion. Participants receive technical instruction, paid apprenticeships, and professional networking opportunities that lead to long-term employment. After graduation, TSL continues to support alumni for three years, helping them achieve stability and success in the workforce. By transforming a traditional craft into a modern pathway to opportunity, The Sewing Labs is building stronger futures and resilient communities across Kansas City.
TRUE LIGHT FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER
True Light Family Resource Center provides a critical lifeline for women experiencing homelessness in Kansas City. Through its women-only day shelter and emergency overnight shelter, True Light offers safety, dignity, and the essential services needed to support women on their path to stability. Unlike many shelters that require a diagnosis of substance
use disorder or serve both men and women, True Light is designed specifically to meet the unique needs of women—regardless of their addiction status—who are often overlooked by traditional housing programs. Most of our women, especially those with children, are staying with us for extended periods. True Light has expanded its offerings with a Job Coach Workforce Development program. By hiring a job coach, True Light will address job skills training and employment, among the most frequent barriers to successful rehousing.
WILDWOOD OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTER
Wildwood Outdoor Education Center believes that learning and growing outdoors matters. Wildwood provides unique, transformative summer camp experiences to children
across the Kansas City area. Campers spend a week catching frogs and fish, singing camp songs, swimming, canoeing across the pond, and reading and learning in an immersive, supportive camp setting. More importantly, campers learn to overcome challenges, gain independence, increase their problem-solving confidence, and build relationships. They achieve measurable outcomes leading to lifelong personal and economic success. Instead of summers spent indoors, Wildwood opens the opportunities of the expansive outside.
Women’s Employment Network (WEN) was founded in 1986 to meet the employment needs of low-
income women in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. Celebrating 35 years, we continue our commitment to helping women establish, define, or re-define their career direction. WEN is built on the belief that when you give women the support to build a foundation for their futures, potential, and well-being, you also strengthen the foundation for the entire community. WEN combines employment preparation with financial coaching to assist them in preparing to enter or re-enter the workforce, providing an on-ramp to long-term financial stability. Through a proven curriculum and personal and professional workshops, our dynamic, experienced staff guide women on a path to self-discovery that creates self-acceptance, empowerment, and self-confidence.
4707 COLLEGE BLVD, SUITE 201