CSM HAS BEEN SERVING IN KANSAS CITY, MO SINCE 2020
Kansas City is the largest city in Missouri. It is located in the western part of the state, at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas rivers. Kansas City is located in Jackson, Clay, Platte, and Cass counties.
In 1821, the year Missouri entered the Union, French trader Franois Chouteau came from St. Louis to establish a trading post on the site of the present city to take advantage of the growing fur trade with the Kansa, Osage, Wyandotte, and other tribes. In 1833, a settlement called Westport Landing was laid out by John Calvin McCoy and developed. The community became the Town of Kansas and was incorporated as a city in 1850 and renamed Kansas City in 1889. The city's name reflects its Native American heritage?its site was within the territory of the Kansa, or Kaw, Indians.
The city is composed of several neighborhoods, including the River Market District in the north, the 18th and Vine District in the east, and the Country Club Plaza in the south. Celebrated cultural traditions include Kansas City jazz, theater which was the center of the Vaudevillian Orpheum circuit in the 1920s, the Chiefs and Royals sports franchises, and famous cuisine based on Kansas City-style barbecue.
Kansas City is home to the second largest Sudanese population in the United States. Its Hispanic and Latino community, mostly from Central America and Mexico, is spread throughout the metropolitan area with the highest concentration southwest of downtown and in the northeast region of Kansas City.
The Asian population, meanwhile, is mostly from Southeast Asia and is heavily concentrated around the Columbus Park area of Greater Downtown.
Kansas City is also home to a large Irish-American community of about 250,000. This community has many bookstores, Browne's Irish Market and numerous newspapers. This large population means that 1 in 2 people in Kansas City has Irish ancestry.
At CSM KC group will have a wide variety of opportunities to serve the Kansas City community and learn about the issues that are unique to the city.
WHAT TO EXPECT ON YOUR TRIP
At CSM KC your group will serve with local organizations in Missouri and Kansas. From tutoring, assisting with reading programs, to assisting at local food banks and shelters; you will serve with organizations that our meeting the needs of the community.
As we seek to serve our city best, we have found that we need to seek to understand both the beautiful and painful parts of Kansas City’s history and current events. We love the beautiful, fun, unique, and diverse parts of the city, but we also love understanding our neighbors as we learn more about the things they are currently experiencing and how the city’s history has brought them to this place. We would like to invite you to come and prayerfully learn alongside of us as we seek to serve our neighbors and further the work that God is already doing in the city through our numerous ministry partners as well as many others who are doing great work in Kansas City.
CSM KANSAS CITY DIRECTOR
Aaron Kick
aaron@csm.orgAaron Kick, born in Miami, Oklahoma, attended Barclay College to study Bible and Theology. During college, he worked as an Attendant Care Professional for the Iroquois Center for Human Development. After graduating, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and spent a year in full time youth ministry. He then went on to continue a career in mental health as the Program Director at Skylander Psychological Services. Through his work in the mental health field and in vocational ministry, Aaron has developed a heart for the disenfranchised and the overlooked. What Aaron loves most about CSM is the hands-on work of serving the community and how that work impacts the larger mission of seeing the Kingdom come here on Earth.