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missouri
H & R Block facilities

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

From Day One A Problem-Solver

Swope Community Builders in Kansas City, Missouri, was born of a cooperative initiative between community leaders and neighborhood associations, The City of Kansas City, Missouri, Swope Parkway Health Center, and the Swope Parkway Health Foundation in 1991 and quickly became a child prodigy among community development corporations, growing fast and leaving its mark throughout the Kansas City’s urban core.

It originated with a grant from the Swope Parkway Health Center to build a new facility called “Imani House” in the Mt. Cleveland neighborhood , a substance abuse treatment center. The residents agreed with the plans to build the center because of substance abuse problems in the community but wanted to ensure that community development didn’t stop there. Swope Community Builders completed the project to the satisfaction of all and went on to tackle a host of new construction projects, including the H&R Block national call center "provided" 700 job; many employees are from the surrounding area and a neighboring office building that now houses several additional corporations.

Swope has still other major housing, office, and retail development projects underway. The Shops on Blue Parkway, the first new retail center in the neighborhood in decades, is scheduled to be complete in early November. It is 156 thousand square feet of mixed-use office and retail space, expected to generate over 300 new jobs for community residents and serve as a catalyst for future economic development..

Swope Community Builders (SCB) attributes its success over the years to public-private partnerships. For the last six years it has received grants and loans from the Kansas City Community Development Initiative, a group funded in part by Living Cities, after which it is modeled. The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) coordinates the Initiative’s largest community improvement program.

Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond, a long-time champion of revitalization in Kansas City, has worked for years with Swope Community Builders and other community development corporations (CDCs) and has played a critical role in obtaining federal funding.

SCB’s latest plans include the redevelopment of a blighted, dilapidated nursing home complex by a partnership whose members include the City, HUD, and LISC. A multi-family housing community called Ridgeview Heights completed in 2004 was funded by an even broader array of entities, including HUD, the City, the state, and several nonprofits. It won the Governor's Award for excellence in multifamily housing in 2004.