476: Urban League presents the State of Black Kansas

Is there by definition, I guess, is there a definition of who Urban League of Kansas serves?

So I think in its original founding, there would have been coming out of the civil rights movement.

I think probably if you walked around the streets of Wichita, if you found 100 people who've heard of Urban League, my hunch is a lot of them would say something to the effect of, oh, you're an organization that helps black people.

And, you know, there's no probably more tactful way of saying that.

I think that's what you would hear.

And I know there's a variety of perceptions.

Today, at least if you ask our leadership within the organization, I think most of us would say these are the programs we provide and we provide them without regard for people's skin color.

But certainly the perception, you know, in the 50s and 60s would have been we're here to help minority populations get back on equal footing with Caucasian populations.

And as we were talking beforehand, a lot of that emphasis is in the 67214 area zip code, which is which is the lowest income area.

here in the area.

It is.

It's by far the lowest income, and I have all kinds of interesting stats I had to educate myself about when I joined the organization.

But yeah, it is the lowest income zip code and lowest financial in many ways in the Wichita metro area and in the bottom five in Kansas overall.

So certainly there is a reason that our office is located in that area.

To me, I don't think there is any excuse for the massive financial disparities that I have discovered between 67214 and just the Wichita Metro area on average.

But

someone doesn't have to live in that zip code to be

sure.

No, absolutely not.

We would serve anybody in Wichita.

We would serve anybody in Kansas for that matter.

But, you know, I would say we concentrate on that simply because if we are serving needs and those needs tend to be concentrated among a lower income population and we happen to be located in a low income zip code, then kind of de facto you are serving people in that immediate area, sure.

Go into a little depth on how the Urban League serves.

Financial literacy is part of it.

Housing is part of it.

Is there by definition, I guess, is there a definition of who Urban League of Kansas serves?

So I think in its original founding, there would have been coming out of the civil rights movement.

I think probably if you walked around the streets of Wichita, if you found 100 people who've heard of Urban League, my hunch is a lot of them would say something to the effect of, oh, you're an organization that helps black people.

And, you know, there's no probably more tactful way of saying that.

I think that's what you would hear.

And I know there's a variety of perceptions.

Today, at least if you ask our leadership within the organization, I think most of us would say these are the programs we provide and we provide them without regard for people's skin color.

But certainly the perception, you know, in the 50s and 60s would have been we're here to help minority populations get back on equal footing with Caucasian populations.

And as we were talking beforehand, a lot of that emphasis is in the 67214 area zip code, which is which is the lowest income area.

here in the area.

It is.

It's by far the lowest income, and I have all kinds of interesting stats I had to educate myself about when I joined the organization.

But yeah, it is the lowest income zip code and lowest financial in many ways in the Wichita metro area and in the bottom five in Kansas overall.

So certainly there is a reason that our office is located in that area.

To me, I don't think there is any excuse for the massive financial disparities that I have discovered between 67214 and just the Wichita Metro area on average.

But

someone doesn't have to live in that zip code to be

sure.

No, absolutely not.

We would serve anybody in Wichita.

We would serve anybody in Kansas for that matter.

But, you know, I would say we concentrate on that simply because if we are serving needs and those needs tend to be concentrated among a lower income population and we happen to be located in a low income zip code, then kind of de facto you are serving people in that immediate area, sure.

Go into a little depth on how the Urban League serves.

Financial literacy is part of it.

Housing is part of it.