Our Programs
Raise Up KC brings together three interconnected programs designed to meet people where they are: in high school, stepping into adulthood, or already rooted in the Kansas City community. Each program is distinct in its audience, but all three are working toward the same goal, connecting people across Kansas City's dividing lines and turning that connection into action.
Race Project KC, Rise Up Leaders, and Raise Up Community aren't three separate programs that happen to share a name. They're a pipeline that shares the same mission.
Race Project KC, Rise Up Leaders, and Raise Up Community aren't three separate programs that happen to share a name. They're a pipeline that shares the same mission.
Race Project KC
For High School Students + Educators
Race Project KC is the anchor program of Raise Up KC and the foundation on which everything else stands. Since 2015, it has brought together high school students from across Kansas City's school boundaries, across city lines, county lines, and the informal segregation lines that still shape this region, to explore the history behind those divides and what it means to live on either side of them.
Students don't just learn about redlining, racial covenants, and blockbusting. They confront it. Through the Dividing Lines Tour, in-school workshops, cross-school cohorts, and an annual student symposium, Race Project KC creates the kinds of encounters students don't get anywhere else, with peers from different neighborhoods, different schools, and different sides of Kansas City's history.
Race Project KC doesn't just work with students. Educators participate in professional development alongside the student program, building the skills and frameworks to carry this work into their classrooms year-round.
Learn more about the Student Experience
Race Project KC is the anchor program of Raise Up KC and the foundation on which everything else stands. Since 2015, it has brought together high school students from across Kansas City's school boundaries, across city lines, county lines, and the informal segregation lines that still shape this region, to explore the history behind those divides and what it means to live on either side of them.
Students don't just learn about redlining, racial covenants, and blockbusting. They confront it. Through the Dividing Lines Tour, in-school workshops, cross-school cohorts, and an annual student symposium, Race Project KC creates the kinds of encounters students don't get anywhere else, with peers from different neighborhoods, different schools, and different sides of Kansas City's history.
Race Project KC doesn't just work with students. Educators participate in professional development alongside the student program, building the skills and frameworks to carry this work into their classrooms year-round.
Learn more about the Student Experience
Rise Up Leaders
For Emerging Leaders Senior Year and Beyond
Coming Soon
Rise Up Leaders is the next step for students who have come up through Race Project KC and are ready to take what they've learned into the world. Designed for seniors transitioning out of high school and young adults in the years beyond, this program bridges the gap between student and community leader.
Through mentorship and alumni connections, advocacy and civic pathways, volunteer and internship opportunities with established KC partners, and a student-led advocacy project, Rise Up Leaders builds the next generation of advocates, organizers, and community builders — people who don't just understand Kansas City's dividing lines but are actively working to undo their impact. Mentorship connections are designed to support not just civic growth but career clarity, helping emerging leaders navigate their path into the workforce with guidance from people who've walked it before them.
This program is in development. Stay connected for updates on launch timing and how to get involved.
Coming Soon
Rise Up Leaders is the next step for students who have come up through Race Project KC and are ready to take what they've learned into the world. Designed for seniors transitioning out of high school and young adults in the years beyond, this program bridges the gap between student and community leader.
Through mentorship and alumni connections, advocacy and civic pathways, volunteer and internship opportunities with established KC partners, and a student-led advocacy project, Rise Up Leaders builds the next generation of advocates, organizers, and community builders — people who don't just understand Kansas City's dividing lines but are actively working to undo their impact. Mentorship connections are designed to support not just civic growth but career clarity, helping emerging leaders navigate their path into the workforce with guidance from people who've walked it before them.
This program is in development. Stay connected for updates on launch timing and how to get involved.
Raise Up Community
For All Greater Kansas City Community Members
Raise Up Community is for everyone else, the Greater Kansas City and surrounding residents, professionals, and civic participants who want to understand the city they live in and help shape what comes next. You don't need to be a student or an educator to do this work. You just need to be willing to look at Kansas City honestly.
Programming includes recurring public Dividing Lines Tours, community dialogue events, professional development opportunities, and Cocktails and Casual Learning, a modern, accessible take on civic education around systemic inequity for adults 21 and older. The through-line is ongoing civic development: not a one-time event, but a sustained invitation to connect and take action.
Raise Up Community is for everyone else, the Greater Kansas City and surrounding residents, professionals, and civic participants who want to understand the city they live in and help shape what comes next. You don't need to be a student or an educator to do this work. You just need to be willing to look at Kansas City honestly.
Programming includes recurring public Dividing Lines Tours, community dialogue events, professional development opportunities, and Cocktails and Casual Learning, a modern, accessible take on civic education around systemic inequity for adults 21 and older. The through-line is ongoing civic development: not a one-time event, but a sustained invitation to connect and take action.
Get Involved
Whether you're a student, an educator, a school administrator, or a Kansas City community member, there's a place for you in this work.
Reach out and let's start a conversation: [email protected]
Reach out and let's start a conversation: [email protected]
