KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In about two weeks, a KC Community Survey will be sent to some neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri.
Forty KCMO neighborhoods will have the option to give their feedback about what’s happening in their area.
The survey is small, but it's the newest part of KCMO's $30 million dollar effort, known as the Violence Prevention Fund, that in part, uses data and research to fight crime.
Dr. Maja Kotlaja is the principal investigator for the program and an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at University of Missouri - Kansas City.
She says the new survey is modeled off of success in Chicago.
"This has never been done in KC," Kotlaja said.
Kotlaja says this community wide survey is to see what neighbors think is driving crime and disorder in KCMO.
"The main goal is to get a baseline in KC," she said. "Essentially, this survey will gather insights into how neighborhood conditions, including crime and safety, impact our community’s health, happiness, and growth. Each person who completes the survey will receive a $50.00 gift card via email or mail after completing the survey with a community member."
Kotlaja says the survey process has been replicated across a dozen United States cities with success to eventually help form public policy.
"When it comes to collective efficacy, social cohesion, the activism, the organizations prevalent in neighborhoods," she said.
Kotlaja said 30 neighborhoods were randomly selected and another 10 neighborhoods were chosen that have a higher violent crime rate.
"At the end of the day, the community is going to be the one who solves crime in our city," she said.
Kotlaja says its people like Janese Williams who will help do that.
Williams is a part of the UMKC data collection team for the survey, serving as an expert interviewer.
"I want to empower our communities to solve the issues at hand," Williams said. "We have a lot of violence, we have a lot of criminality — we have a lot of plaguing our city that doesn’t seem to get any better."
Willams will be one of many who ask survey questions to people who she lives nearby, and they need 20 more surveyors.
"We know what’s affecting our communities, we know what’s happening down the street, around the corner and a lot of us have great ideas to combat the issues we are facing, but there’s no voice to that they stay and stop at the kitchen table," she said.
So instead of word-of-mouth solutions or issues, they'll have data to back it up.
"We're just having a conversation. Yes, we’re documenting this. Yes, we are collecting data on your answers, but we are really having a conversation with your niece, with your grandma, with your neighbors, and let’s talk so we can understand what the issues are and have strategy to really fix them," Williams said. "We are not trying to frame questions that put you in harm’s way. It’s really an opportunity to just let your voice be heard; there’s nothing that’s incriminating about the issues we will ask; we are literally asking you to share your experience in your neighborhood and what solutions you feel would be appropriate to solve your problems."
Williams said the goal is to help the community see the power in their voice to shape the city and then use it to form public policy, move resources around, and maybe gain national funding.
"We need national support to be able to pour resources into our community to combat the problem; this is bigger," she said. "What KC can fix by ourselves, although we may have the solutions, so we need to be able to fund the solutions we come up with."
The KCMO City Council and the city's department of health will receive the results.
Kotlaja expects the survey results to be released January 2025
The survey will be implemented by community members from the week of Oct 5-13, and Kotlaja expects about 800 households to surveyed.
Kotlaja needs an additional 20 more community interviewers who will receive $20/hour.
To sign up click, this link.
Below is a list of the neighborhoods expected to be randomly surveyed:
KCMO Council District 1
- Prairie Point-Wildberry
- New Mark
- Shoal Creek
- Gashland
- Outer Gashland-Nashua
KCMO Council District 2
- Barry Harbour
- The Coves
- Ravenwood-Somerset
- Maple Park
- Winnwood Gardens
KCMO Council District 3
- Lykins
- Longfellow
- Palestine East
- South Blue Valley
- Oak Park Southeast
KCMO Council District 4
- North Hyde Park
- Southmoreland
- River Market
- Davidson
- Rockhill
KCMO Council District 5
- Ruskin Heights
- East Meyer
- Brown Estates
- Little Blue
- Hickman Mills South
KCMO Council District 6
- Tower Homes
- Linden Hills And Indian Heights
- Waldo Homes
- Morningside
- Richards Gebaur
Below is a list of neighborhoods selected base on crime levels:
- Paseo West
- Cunningham Ridge
- Key Coalition
- Ivanhoe Northeast
- Dunbar
- Old Westport
- Mount Hope
- Ivanhoe Southeast
- East Swope Highlands
- Blenheim Square Research
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KSHB 41 reporter Megan Abundis covers Kansas City, Missouri, including neighborhoods in the southern part of the city. Share your story idea with Megan.