Raising KC quilt inspires relationships at Union Station
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There’s a message you can’t miss hanging in the Grand Hall at Union Station for the next week and a half.
The 10×10 foot quilt is the biggest visual cue for a unique campaign called Raising KC promoting the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships children need with trusted adults.
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“We can be a voice for children and we can say that every child needs a, safe, stable, nurturing adult,” said Raising KC Co-Founder Barbara Unell.
Research from the CDC and other youth mental health experts show that those kinds of relationships can reduce childhood stress and lead to better health outcomes for those kids as they become teens and adults.
“We can prevent all of these things that we all want to prevent,” Unell said. “The health, learning, behavior problems that we all struggle with, I think we all share that goal.”
Kansas City Councilwoman Melissa Robinson helped kickoff the campaign, talking about how she found Alvin Brooks and his AdHoc Group Against Crime when she was a teenage runaway.
“He taught me work ethic, you know and I was able to get a job there as a kid and he was just an amazing individual who really saw potential,” Robinson said.
Robinson credits that relationship with directing her towards public service.
Johnson County Commission Board Chair Mike Kelly is also embracing the campaign, pointing out that this kind of work is needed on both sides of the state line.
“All of those things that we try to avoid as a community and we’re spending a lot of money and time on the backside dealing with, we’ve got the cheat code here on how we can address those on the front end,” Kelly said.
Quilter Tia Curtis says she hopes visitors seeing her work in Union Station gives them the comfort that one of these special relationships can provide.
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“I hope that they have a sense of comfort when they see it and I hope that when they interact with their loved ones or the special people in their life, they’re able to bring some of the comfort to them,” said Curtis.
Check out the Behavior Checker through Raising KC, helping adults care for kids based on how they are acting.
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