Kansas City Community Outreach

Kansas City Community Outreach

Kansas City, like each of the FBI’s local field offices, has a community outreach program that complements and strengthens our many efforts to protect you, your businesses, and your families in concrete ways through a range of activities and initiatives.

Our recent activities include:

• We recently presented our annual Director’s Community Leadership Award to Marvin Szneller. Mr. Szneller was recognized for his community contributions as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Bureau/America Jewish Committee.
• Our latest Citizens’ Academy, hosted in spring 2010, brought together a cross section of 27 community, business, civic, religious, and non-profit leaders to learn firsthand about our operations and programs. The academy not only demystifies our work but also creates new contacts and channels for working together and sharing information. We plan to begin our next Citizens’ Academy in September of 2010. Learn more, including how to apply.

Academy students taking target practice at the range.

• The Kansas City Division hosted the Jr. Special Agent Graduation Ceremony for the school year 2010 – 2011. ASAC Dan Jones administered the oath of office for the graduates of the Kansas City Division Jr. Special Agents graduation. The program ran during the 2010 – 2011 school year with Special Agents and support personnel providing instructions to the 4th grade students of Garcia Elementary every other Wednesday for the duration of the school year.

Two classes of students take the oath in the Junior Special Agent Program. In this program, we provide 16 weeks of lessons to the 4th grade students at Primitivo Garcia Elementary School in Kansas City.

• We recently hosted our annual Youth Leadership Academy on Friday June 17th. The Academy is comprised of students who will be juniors and seniors in the upcoming school year who have been nominated for attendance by their school. Approximately 40 students from area high schools attended the eight hour program where topics covered included an overview of the FBI and our jurisdiction, careers with the FBI, the honors intern program, cyber crimes, hostage negotiations, evidence recovery and SWAT demonstrations. Learn More

• The Kansas City Division partnered with the Islamic Society of Wichita to host a Community Relations Executive Seminar Training. The program, which took place on Saturday, March 5th, provided an event in which the FBI could provide educational information and briefings on specific topics of interest and concern to the members of the ISW. The CREST event proved to be an excellent avenue for an open exchange of dialogue and friendship.

Among our other ongoing efforts:

• Meeting with minority groups and civic organizations to talk about what the FBI can do with them and for them and hosting town hall meetings as needed to dialogue on key issues;
• Supporting our Citizens’ Academy graduates, who have formed a non-profit FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association that helps create crime prevention programs and other initiatives to benefit communities and that fosters activities to continue the partnerships formed during the academy;
• Supporting Congressional briefing and range day for area U.S. Congressional offices;
• Holding Community Relations Executive Seminar Training (CREST) events;
• Partnering with the American Football Coaches Association and its National Child Identification Program to distribute Child ID kits at football games and other events; and
• Sending our special agents and professional support staff into schools, businesses, and civic meetings to explain emerging crime and security threats and to provide specific advice on how to prevent being victimized by these threats. To request a speaker, visit this webpage.

Visit our national In Your Community website for more information about our overall outreach efforts and our work in other local FBI offices.