Read More

To watch the full coverage click here.

KANSAS CITY – The busiest bus route in Kansas City is undergoing a transformation. By fall, riders will be able to catch a bus along Troost every 10 minutes and there have been some environmental upgrades to beautify the blight.

The new hybrid buses run on electricity and rain gardens from downtown to Bannister Road will capture and filter stormwater. These are just some of the upgrades that will help Troost live up to its new name: The Green Line

Workers are installing 42 new concrete bus pads along Troost as part of the street upgrades for a new bus rapid transit line.

The improvements, combined with new traffic signals and curb cutouts for rain gardens and trees, come as a pleasant surprise for those who live and work along Troost.

Fr. David Altschul has been in the area since 1988. He calls this the first real investment that can spark revitalization of the blighted corridor.

“I remember about 10 years ago, one day we came out and all the trees had been cut down,” Altschul said. “It felt like an absolute desert. We really felt like the pain of abandonment. What we’ve begun to see is people beginning to come back and to have a new vision for the village in this area.” Read more…

Unfortunately, this picture perfect world is just that a black and white, aged photograph hanging inside Reconciliation Services, a community outreach organization supported by the tireless efforts of Orthodox Christian nun and UMKC Nursing alumna, Mother Nicole Oakes, R.N., (B.S.N. ‘09).

For Oakes, it’s difficult to envision a return to Troost’s better days, but she’s putting her entire heart and soul into this effort.

“I became a nun in 1997,” said Oakes, who in an earlier time had planned to retire in Alaska. But, a longing for “something more” changed that idea. Instead, she ended up in Kansas City, working as a nurse in alcohol and substance abuse treatment and later in HIV/AIDS care. Today, she serves as
emergency assistance director, pastoral counselor, for Reconciliation
Services (RS), a five-year-old non-profit established from Reconciliation Ministries and St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church.

A longtime member of the Serbian Orthodox faith, she took her oath in 1997 and pursued a bachelor’s degree in nursing a few years ago. She and her abbess (spiritual leader) considered social work, but she came to the realization that, “really I am a nurse.” They selected nursing and investigated
the UMKC R.N. to B.S.N. program. “UMKC has a bachelor’s degree program, it’s online, and it will only take me two years,” she thought at the time.

“It’s a great program,” said the recent graduate. “I’m a firm believer in the B.S.N. being the entry program, for R.N.s to have that education.”

Now, armed with her degree and support from UMKC students, she’s looking to harness the energy and creativity that students can bring. This semester, she is working with UMKC students (online and in-person), who are assessing participants, the neighborhood and programs for Reconciliation Services as
part of their coursework.

Reconciliation Services is a place for individuals needing support, one-step beyond the place of last resort, said Oakes, who works alongside fellow UMKC alumnus, Father Paisius (David) Altschul, RS executive director, who received his master’s degree in Social Work from UMKC.

The facility sits at the southeast corner of 31st Street and Troost Avenue, in a long-since abandoned clothing store. Today, paint flakes from the walls; exposed ceilings show the effects of time, wear and tear; and wood and tile floors creak beneath. But within minutes, a visitor begins to only notice smiles, laughter and a youthful energy. This outpouring is demonstrated
through myriad services offered, including a fresh food pantry; document support; sit-down meals, where participants enjoy live music and five-star service; mental health and substance abuse counseling; and community
building activities, such as neighborhood festivals and community gardens.

Taking Control of Community

“How do we as a community take control of our community and grow,” asks Mother Nicole, dressed in a traditional black robe and habit. She hopes to continue to answer this question with the help of UMKC students, who this semester started performing assessments as part of coursework.

Though she’ll sit back and listen to students’ ideas, one gets the feeling that she’s eager to offer suggestions. “Ultimately, I want nurses in the community,” she said.

“I would love to see a nurse into the home. That’s what I do with folks right now.” She said she often visits clients in their homes and helps them with nutrition and transportation to the grocery store. She said she dreams of growing this into a program in which volunteer nurses are provided a
stipend to meet one-on-one, in the home, with individuals and families.

Always a Nurse

Before becoming a nun and pursuing a UMKC B.S.N., Nicole Oakes worked in the ER and later in HIV/AIDS care. “I set up a program to meet with each of the clients before they went on the medicine to be sure they were engaged,” she said. After years of this emotionally draining work, she said she still thought there was more she could do.

“I was looking for more to give,” she said. “A lot of it came out of working with HIV folks. I was seeing dying people every day, and I felt that I had a lot of knowledge and experience. I just wanted more depth, spiritually,” she said. “When I became  a nun, I had no idea what would happen to my life.”

When she was younger, “My parents use to say, ‘when are you going to get married?’” she said, adding that she loved children but not the thought of marriage.

Today, she’s making a difference in the lives of countless children, men and women. And after just a few minutes with Mother Nicole, one senses that perhaps one day, the old Troost Avenue photograph hanging in the office might again reflect life outside the doors.

www.eiazone.com

The 6th Annual Troost Fest is this Saturday, May 22nd, from 12 p.m. – 10 p.m. at 31st and Troost.

Troost Avenue…

My grandfather used to have a fur shop on 46th and Troost called Altschul and Son.

My mother used to take me to Jones Store at 31st and Troost to shop for clothing when I was a boy. Across the street was the President’s Shirt Shop, named after Harry Truman for his friendship with Eddie Jacobson, the owner. From this friendship grew the love for Jewish people that ultimately led to Truman supporting the formation of the State of Israel in 1948.

In 1968, my wife was pulled over at 31st and Troost when she was trying to give a ride to someone after curfew when Martial Law was imposed after the martyrdom of Dr. Martin Luther King in April.

Troost Avenue….

A trail for the Osage Indian Nation to the Missouri River in the 1700’s. A slave plantation between 1833 and 1865. Millionaire’s Row between 1880 and 1910. A city within a city between 1915 and 1960, with 186 businesses within 2 blocks of 31st and Troost. An entertainment hub where young Walt Disney used to first show his animation at the Isis Theater created one block east on 31st and Forest at Laugh-o-Gram’s Studio. A ghost town in the 1980s due to white flight… And now?…

Troost Avenue …

The Jones Store is a custom furniture store. The President’s Shirt shop is St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church and Reconciliation Services. J.C. Penney’s is Operation Breakthrough. Altschul and Son is Walgreen’s. From 18th to 75th Street, Troost Avenue is rivaling a city in the Netherlands for the number of tulips.

Troost Avenue….

The site of the Troost Avenue Festival where neighbors celebrate neighbors and every person matters. The site of Troost Village, Troost Alliance, and Troost Folks – all dedicated to changing Troost from a dividing line to a gathering place. This May 22, 2010 from Noon to 10:00 p.m.

Troost Festival….

To prepare for the Troost Festival on May 22nd, we are having a Troost Fest Canvass on Saturday, April 24th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For the Canvass activity, we are asking that you walk the Troost corridor for at least four blocks with us, in groups of three or four people, to knock on doors to inform others about the Troost Fest and its sponsors.

The Troost Fest sponsors are Reconciliation Services, an agency that provides emergency assistance and therapeutic services to individuals; TYCOR, a non-profit Community Development Corporation that promotes entrepreneurial activity along the Troost Corridor, especially for youth, and a wonderful group of people called “Troost Folks”, who are a collaboration of individuals and persons representing organizations, churches, and businesses in the midtown area. Reconciliation Services is located at 3101 Troost.

Troost Avenue….

In the future, a place where the city gathers in safety and diversity to discover how to be a community, the many working together as one.

David (Paisius) Altschul is executive director of Reconciliation Services, 3101 Troost. For more information, go to www.rs3101.org; for the Troost Festival, go to www.troostvillage.org; and for St. Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church, go to www.stmaryofegypt.net.

ASH GROVE, Mo. — When he moved back home here 12 years ago, the Rev. Moses Berry wanted to settle down to small-town life with his wife and two children. He did not intend to become a one-man racial reconciliation committee.

But some residents of this nearly all-white, rural town of 1,400 people 15 miles west of Springfield say that he has done just that.

Photo Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/The New York Times

By founding a black history museum here, cleaning up his family’s cemetery and telling his family’s sometimes controversial story, beginning with its roots in slavery, Father Moses, as everyone calls him — an African-American, Orthodox Christian priest in a flowing black cassock — has tried to remind people of a part of the region’s often-forgotten past, and to open up hearts and minds along the way.

“He brings peace to people. I’ve seen it,” said Gail Emrie, 56, a local history buff who helped get the Berry family’s 135-year-old cemetery — one of the region’s few black cemeteries not located on a plantation — listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. “It is reconciliation, and it is his mission, reconciliation of our history between the races.”

To read the full article, click here.