MORE2 is a Kansas City-based organization committed to transforming communities by creating a metropolitan area that embraces all people and offers everyone the opportunity to achieve their greatest potential. In Kansas City, as in other metropolitan areas across the country, racism pressed low-income African-Americans and other racial and ethnic minority groups into the inner city. Public policie
s, from the building of the interstate highway system to the denial of FHA-insured loans to integrated neighborhoods, rewarded individuals and businesses for leaving behind the inner city and moving to outlying areas. That concentration of poverty created social problems that compounded one another: increased poverty in the core, segregation by race and economics, deteriorating and ineffective urban public schools, urban sprawl and environmental degradation, and poor or non-existent public transportation to the affluent suburban areas. In the face of these disparities, the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity (MORE²) was formed in 2004. An affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation (an international organizing institute), we focus on racial and economic justice through metropolitan equity and social change. Since our formation, MORE² has been built by the multiracial, multidenominational people who make up our 20 member congregations in Missouri and Kansas. Louis, Missouri, MCU, we use the alliance between our member congregations to make systemic, sustainable changes in the public policies that govern economic development, education, transportation and health equity. MORE2 was created in late 2004 as an interfaith social justice organization reflecting different cultural backgrounds, faith traditions, skin colors and economic means. We are united in our commitment to transforming our communities by creating a metropolitan area that embraces all people and offers everyone the opportunity to achieve their greatest potential. As people of faith, we are called to break down barriers that divide us along the lines of race and economic status. We know that what affects any one of us ultimately affects all of us. We are called to be agents of change in our communities. We join hands through building intentional relationships among the people in our faith communities. This builds broad grass roots participation so we can walk the path to social justice for our great metropolitan area. Together, with our faith as our guide, we claim the power to transform our bi-state metro region by overcoming obstacles to racial and economic equity in Kansas City. Rather than providing services or programs, we work to change policies in ways that promote racial and economic equity in the Kansas City metro region. We are affiliated with the Gamaliel Foundation, an organizing network of 60 affiliates in 21 states across the United States, in South Africa and in the United Kingdom. Gamaliel represents over a million members of various faiths and cultures who work for social justice.
