The goal of this page is to support school integration efforts in Kansas City by providing information and resources to inform and motivate parents, educators, and community leaders. Together we can move integration forward in Kansas City and provide equitable education for all.

This page was created by Lisa Gooden, a Kansas City Public Schools parent and public school advocate. She grew up attending magnet schools within Indianapolis Public Schools, and went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, and a Master of Arts in Library Science from University of Missouri – Columbia where she focused her study on library services to children and young adults. Gooden has a history of service to youth, including tutoring, volunteering with the Girl Scouts, and ten years as Youth Services Supervisor at the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library where she worked closely with the schools and families in the community. In her current role as Senior Collection Development Librarian for the Kansas City Public Library, she is responsible for the selection and curation of a diverse and representative collection of youth materials for the library system. Her own children attend global majority schools in the Kansas City Public School district where she is an active volunteer at both the school and district level.

Kansas City Voices for Integration is a part of the national Integrated Schools network.

Integrated Schools belief statements:

WHY? Integrated Schools exists so that children can learn together and create a true multiracial democracy.

WHAT? We are building a movement of parents/caregivers working to redress the imbalance of racial and economic power in our systems of education. 

HOW? Our grassroots movement engages in relationship building, education, self-reflection and behavior change.

Integrated Schools is growing a grassroots movement of, by and for parents who are intentionally, joyfully and with humility enrolling their children in integrating schools. Embracing the promise of integrated schools to prepare all students to thrive in an ever-globalizing world, provide equitable access and cultivate meaningful bonds across race, class, and ethnicity, we not only value but prioritize integration. Because school segregation is as much a story of failed public policy as it is one of white/privileged families thwarting it, our hearts-and-minds campaign offers a new model for integration in which this undertaking falls not on the backs of marginalized communities, but on white and/or privileged families who care about equity. By working with parents to examine their privilege and understand that their impact matters more than their intentions, Integrated Schools prepares parents to support meaningfully integrated classrooms that reflect the diversity of their district as well as school communities that respect ALL families and are galvanized around supporting ALL children Through national organizing to promote local action, we support, educate, develop and mobilize families to “live their values,” disrupt segregation, and leverage their choices for the well-being and futures for their own children, for all children, and for our democracy.