On The Vine: This nonprofit changes lives. Now it needs the community’s support
I want to tell you about a Kansas City nonprofit that for a half-dozen years has been changing lives for teens and young adults here.
Now it may be looking to readjust a bit and needs community support to ensure its violence prevention work continues.
Lyrik’s Institution, an organization that is all about reaching and turning around the lives of struggling young people who others have failed to reach, is itself in the midst of change these days. It’s going through a three-month reorganization, growing pains and financial challenges.
The revamp means the nonprofit’s street team, which, according to founder and Executive Director Kyle Hollins, is “often in high-intensity, street-based settings,” now will work in “structured school environments.” That’s a big shift.
It means these workers have to learn how to communicate with a whole different set of young people and bring the Lyrik’s Institution culture into spaces it has not previously been, but perhaps should have been.
Schools are a great place to reach young people who may be standing at a crossroads, not realizing that bad choices can be devastating.
While the growth is hard for the organization, Hollins, in a recent Lyrik’s Institution newsletter, wrote that, “It’s stretching us. It’s growing us. It’s making our organization more dynamic than ever.”
Full transparency, I ran into Hollins at Graceway Church in Raytown last week, and seeing him and his smile reminded me that I wanted to share a bit of his story with Kansas City.
Hollins, who in his youth dealt with homelessness, gang involvement, crime and incarceration, knows that living the hard street life too often leads young people into a prison cell or an early grave.
He started Lyrik’s to show teens another path and to help steer them away from community environments that could lead them into trouble with the law or worse.
Hollins started Lyrik’s Institution, named for his daughter Lyrik, in 2019 as a way to reduce violence and crime in Kansas City by using programs aimed at identifying and reworking destructive thinking patterns into more productive behaviors.
Lyrik’s uses efforts like music, art and internships to reach the young people the organization serves.
In fewer words, behavior modification.
The bottom line, Hollins says, is to address the root causes of crime and at the same time inspire, educate, uplift and provide opportunity for at risk young adults. The organization is located on East 39th Street in Kansas City.
Lyrik’s, which spends nearly $250,000 a year to operate, has served well over 1,300 young people since its start.
“There is a level of trust involved with what we do,” says Hollins. “We are able to lock in with young adults that a lot of programs cannot get to.”
Off The Vine
Below are stories about culture and identity from communities in the Kansas City metro area. Go here to find more stories on culture and identity from Star reporter J.M. Banks.
- Kansas City’s Reparation Coalition is launching a fundraising campaign to produce a documentary and educate Kansas Citians about how the vestiges of slavery in Missouri and systemic racism disenfranchised Black residents here.
- This Kansas City comic and content creator made a jingle that went viral and landed him a staring role in a Wendy’s restaurant commercial. This story tells you how that happened and to whom.
Around The Vine
- Join music lovers for a live performance by Tetsuya Nishiyama at the Blue Room, 1600 E. 18th St., Kansas City, on Nov. 13 at noon. Also hear Darron J & Go Hard Band at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, for the Indigo Hour.
- Join the Latinx Education Collaborative at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at 2301 Lexington Ave., where a local voting rights advocate and artist will guide participants in a creative form of civic engagement.
Vine Picks
- The news on what’s been going on with federal food assistance benefits, known as SNAP, has been changing day to day. Star reporter Laura Bauer has been keeping up and shares the latest.
- Star reporter David Hudnall goes inside unlicensed strip-mall casinos where he found that “bets are real but the laws are murky.” He gives the details and more about these 24-hour gambling dens.
- A guest columnist writes an interesting opinion piece about why New York voted for Zohran Mamdani and how Kansas City wants what NY wants.
- There’s a mysterious push to block signature-gathering against Missouri redistricting. Kansas City Star reporter Kacen Bayless writes about in this Reality Check.
- This Kansas City restaurant closes in a historic location, and Star writer Jenna Thompson has details about the potential concept change.
Your voice matters to us. What local issues do you want to hear discussed in On The Vine? Let me, Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s assistant managing editor for race and equity, know directly at mdwilliams@kcstar.com. Thank you for reading.
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