Rebuilding Together Kansas City, Inc.

Our organization is striving to enable disadvantaged and vulnerable residents to safely stay in their own homes for as long as possible.  Rebuilding Together Kansas City (RTKC) firmly believes that a comfortable, livable, and stable living environment has a direct impact on the health of the ones living within.  RTKC aims to eliminate unsafe and substandard living conditions by providing essential home repairs and safety modifications.  Since inception in 2001, 7,102 volunteers have invested 82,931 hours to improve the conditions of 1,046 homes for 455 children, 940 seniors, and 848 people with disabilities. The total value of these improvements add up to a market value of $3,178,561.  These accomplishments are only possible with a large number of generous donors to provide financial support.

Our strategies include: recruiting more volunteers to help with the labor and more sponsors to help with the project expense budget; building on existing partnerships with local hospitals, senior service agencies, falls prevention coalitions, churches, businesses, civic organizations, and more; utilizing the skills of our highly-skilled and experienced project managers to train volunteers and to ensure every project is completed with high quality; strengthening both of our programs - Safe at Home and Rebuilding Day; improving upon our fundraising events - Strike (Out Poverty) & Spare (Homes) Tournament, Bags for Rebuilding Cornhole Tournament, and Rebuilding Day House Sponsorships.

RTKC has two project managers that have over 50 combined years of building and remodeling experience.  They have been highly trained in best practices for completing home safety modifications, and they excel at working with volunteer crews.  Clay McQuerry, Executive Director, is a Certified Aging in Place Specialist, and he is well-regarded for his knowledge and expertise in the Aging in Place arena.  He is a Co-Leader of the Senior Falls Prevention Coalition of Clay and Platte Counties.  RTKC uses close to 30 Safe at Home Volunteers on a year-round basis to complete home safety modifications.  In addition to safety modifications, Safe at Home provides urgent repairs by professional contractors, including: electricians, plumbers, heating and cooling technicians, roofers, carpenters, exterminators, and more.  Most of the home rehabilitation projects are completed by volunteer crews on the annual Rebuilding Day on a Saturday in mid-September. On this day, nearly 400 volunteers work to eliminate substandard conditions on 20-25 homes in the Kansas City area.

With an aging population, the need for more safe and accessible homes is going to continue to grow at an alarming rate.  RTKC's Safe at Home program is already in high demand, but the expectation is that it will need to continue to grow and develop in capacity and capability.  In addition to common repair needs, there is also an incredible need for major repairs, such as: the ability to repair and replace roofs,plus to install new heating/cooling systems and water heaters.  Low-income families are not able to afford minor repairs let alone try to cover the cost of these costly repairs.  RTKC is constantly looking for ways to resolve this enormous problem, and we are constantly recruiting new partnering contractors to help us accomplish this goal.