Community for Understanding and Hope

Annual CFUH Picnic at Kirkwood Park

Pack your picnic basket and join your neighbors for a fun evening at Kirkwood Park.

CFUH will provide music, bottled water and the pavillion.

Date: Sunday, Oct. 9              Time: 4 PM -- 7 PM

Help us advertise by posting our flyer.

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Hands on Kirkwood

A day when community members of all ages are encouraged to move beyond the comfort of their homes and places of worship to faithfully love and serve their neighbors. Come make a difference with us!.

Date: Saturday, Oct. 22              Time: 8:30 AM -- 1:30 PM

To find out more about this day of serving our community which is sponsored by many community organizations, go to http://www.kirkwoodbaptist.org/community/hands-on-kirkwood/

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A Community Coming Together

A Symposium on Diversity.

Sponsored by the Kirkwood Human Rights Commission

Date: Saturday, Oct. 22              Time: 1:30 PM -- 4:30 PM
Place: Keating Center, Kirkwood High School

Welcome by Mayor Art McDonnell and HRC Chair Darnel Frost

Introductory Remarks by Rabbi Susan Talve

Keynote Speaker: U.S. Rep Emanuel Cleaver(D) Kansas City

This will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Alvin Reid of KETC's "Donnybrook"

Help us advertise by posting our flyer.

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Book Club

Co-sponsored by CFUH and the Kirkwood Public Library. Our goal is to build friendships, increase our awareness and enjoy each other.

The next meeting of the CFUH Book Club will be on Thursday evening, Oct. 27, 2011 at 7 PM. Meeting place is Adams Hall, Eliot Chapel, 100 S. Taylor.

The book for discussion is Never Been a Time: the 1917 race riot that sparked the civil rights movement by Harper Barnes. Deb Lavender is the discussion leader.

Click here for a list of the books we have scheduled to read during the coming year.

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Adventures in Learning -- Harrison Avenue

A program for older adults created in collaboration between the Shepherd's Center of Webster-Kirkwood and Harrison Avenue Missionary Baptist Church

Date: Tuesdays, October 18 to November 15 and December 6         Time: 9 AM -- 12 PM
Place: Harrison Avenue Baptist Church

For more details, check our flyer at http://www.cfuh.org/images/HarrisonAvenueFall2011.pdf

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Our Trip to Memphis

Forty of us traveled to Memphis on a chartered bus.

We saw the National Civil Rights Museum and the Burkle Estate Museum (Slavehaven.)

We had a great time with fellow Kirkwoodians enjoying an evening on Beale Street and learning more about our history as a nation.

Read about our trip in the Webster-Kirkwood Times. See our photos on FaceBook.

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A Documentary about Kirkwood

"Trying to Understand It All: The Kirkwood City Council Shooting."

Chris Jeske is a graduate of Kirkwood High School and of Marquette University student who has produced this documentary you can find on his website at http://www.kirkwood-documentary.com/.

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DOJ Mediation Agreement

In the wake of the tragic events of February 7th, 2008, a team-oriented mediation process was begun to address concerns expressed by Meacham Park residents. The mediation and resulting agreement was moderated by William Whitcomb of the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. Members of the City and Community teams established a partnership with affected residents of Meacham Park and engaged in a series of focus groups to identify the current cultural composition and what issues need to be addressed.

The agreement covers three specific areas. It calls for:

• the City Council to “Empower the Human Rights Advisory and Awareness Commission with the tools necessary to establish itself as a more active and responsive servant and leader in the community, and to increase transparency, efficiency and public confidence in the citizen compliant/request process”,
• creating, expanding and/or focusing on specific Kirkwood Police programs, and
• addressing issues with the home improvement program in the Meacham Park neighborhood that was funded by Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

The agreement and supporting documentation are available on the City of Kirkwood website. The documents there are the press release, the agreement document, and supporting documentation.

A recent series of stories in the St. Louis Beacon reviews relevant history and events in Kirkwood that led to the development of this agreement http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/view/100029/34005/.

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Our Future

On Saturday March 7, 2009 the CFUH Steering Committee held a retreat to discuss the future direction of our group The strongest commitment that came out of the retreat is the Steering Committee’s wishes to continue its work PROMOTING A RESPECTFUL PREJUDICE-FREE community. Another decision was to change of our name to Community for Understanding and Hope. We continue to believe that broadening the level of understanding in our community is of paramount importance. Now we want to focus our organization on building a greater future for all of our citizens. For the time being, we will retain the mission statement we have although we may want to make some modification to that as we adjust our direction in this, our second year.

The Steering Committee has decided on three areas of focus and is establishing committees to work on each of these areas.

Cross Racial Interaction will seek to provide:

• Social interaction among races,
• A safe place for people to tell their stories,
• Involvement of our city's youth in exploring racial interaction,
• Increased awareness of how we view and treat others,
• Development of smaller, less formal racially-mixed groups such as Bridges, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Meacham Park Neighborhood Concerns will seek to provide:

• A united voice for Meacham Park residents,
• Increased efforts to help Meacham Park residents feel more included, and
• Clearer, more concise, and prioritized understanding of the needs of Meacham Park.

Education will seek to provide:

• Reduced achievement gap between races in the R-7 Schools,
• More black teachers and administrators in the R-7 schools,
• Discussions with R-7 Board and Administrators regarding race relations and issues,
• Working relationship with the new Superintendent of Schools in Kirkwood,
• More blacks involved in school committees, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Other possible areas of focus were considered. Some of these are being considered by other groups.

Our intent with this summary is to honor our commitment to you to keep you up to date with our activities and our future direction. All of you remain very much a part of CFUH. We thoroughly appreciate your input and your concern for our future. We cannot do this work without your participation and your well wishes for this group’s success. We honestly believe that if CFUH can succeed, ALL of Kirkwood succeeds on so many levels. Thank you for your continued interest and we will make every effort to keep you up to date on our progress. If you are interested in participating on one of our committees, please send an email to

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February 7, 2009 Session

The program, held at Kirkwood Baptist Church, was based on a presentation of the winning essays from the CFUH Essay Contest. The winners read their essays to the group where the ideas from the essays were discussed. A specially commissioned piece of music, "Canticle of Peace" was sung in it's debut performance.

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Community Gospel Choir

The Community Gospel Choir is a group of people from many different churches and many different parts of the St. Louis area. Through their spirited interpretation of the rich tradition of African-American gospel music, the choir is working to break down racial, cultural and economic barriers in our community. For more information, check out the website at www.communitygospelchoir.org.