Meet the inspiring individuals making a difference in Kansas City in the second season of Voices of Kansas City. Tune in to KKFI 90.1 FM or listen online at KKFI.org.

Courtesy of Kansas City Star
This interview is part of the second season of Voices of Kansas City, a project created in collaboration with KKFI Community Radio to highlight the experiences of Kansas Citians making an impact on the community. All the episodes are available at the KKFI.org site https://kkfi.org/program/voices-of-kansas-city/ and listen to KKFI live on 90.1 FM, or at KKFI.org. Do you know someone who should be featured in a future season of Voices of Kansas City? Tell us about them using this form.
Nearly every time Janay Reliford, who chairs the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, is out and about at events around the city, she is literally wearing evidence of her Black pride, assuring there will be no mistaking where her passions lie. Usually she is adorned with some combination of a head wrap, earrings and a dashiki ( a colorful tunic worn mostly in West Africa and made popular in the U.S. during the 1960s), or a sweat shirt or “T” shirt with some positive Afrocentric expression emblazoned across the front. Her attire pairs perfectly with the smile she also flashes proudly.
Reliford’s smile and Black pride are two things she had to learn. She found them with the help of family and friends who supported her as an unmarried teen mom taking care of her child while getting her education and building a reputation in Kansas City as a determined, hard working, well informed citizen whose passions are service to others and striving to repair the harms historically done, through systemic racism and overt racism, to Black Kansas Citians. Her story is powerful and relevant and that’s why The Star invited Reliford to join us in the studios of KKFI radio where she recently spoke to Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s assistant managing editor for race and equity. That interview, with minor editing for space and clarity, is published here in a question and answer format to share Reliford’s authentic voice.
Meet Janay Reliford
The Star: Janay we want to hear all about the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, but first, is there something else you do? Do you have another job?
Reliford: Well, that is a great question. No, I do not have a 9-to-5. It seems more like a 24-7 kind of thing that I have going on, which makes it difficult to find balance with all the things that I have going on. But somebody gave me some great advice not long ago and said it’s not about balance, it’s about some things you just have to say no to, right? But along with my role with the Kansas City Reparations Coalition, I also am the CEO and founder of Camp CHOICE, which is a life enrichment resource for youth and families. So I do adult life simulations for teens, but I do a whole lot of other life skills, education-type experiences. It’s more than just the adult life simulations.
So that’s really my baby, Camp CHOICE. CHOICE stands for Children Having Opportunities In Creating In Environment. That means the choices we make create the environment we find ourselves in. On top of that, I am also the program and fundraising coordinator for the Yvonne Stark Wilson Park, and this is with Heart of the City, Dunbar neighborhood, and it’s through the AmeriCorps program.
I’m an AmeriCorps Vista working in the historic Dunbar neighborhood to raise money for this park that is named after Senator Yvonne Starks Wilson. So it’s a very important and exciting role. And I’m also engaged with a lot of other wonderful community organizations that I volunteer for.
So would you call yourself a community activist, a community advocate? How would you sum up all of these projects that you’re working on into one title, if you will?
I would call myself a community servant.
A community servant. I love that. What is your goal with each of these? Are they different, or is it all about creating a better quality of life for every individual?
That’s a great question because when I pointed out that it’s really hard to find balance with all these things that I’m engaged in, while some of them may have uniqueness about them, they are all connected in some way. And I would say that my ultimate goal is to help enhance the quality of life for others. So for my youth camp, the vision for that is youth choosing well. I want young people from all walks of life to understand the power of their choices so they can have a better quality of life. And I’m a social worker, so all the other things that I do are just about really wanting to see people be better.
Are you from Kansas City originally?
I am.
So you were born and raised here? What part of the city did you grow up in? Where did you go to high school?
So I grew up right off 39th Street; My childhood home is at 39th (Street) and Tracy (Avenue). I went to Westport High School and I’m a product of Project Choice, which is a scholarship program through the Kauffman Foundation that afforded me the opportunity to go to college.
So where did you go to college?
I did my undergrad, well, I did a two-plus-two program with Central Missouri State University and Longview Community College. So I took all my classes at Longview, but I got my bachelor’s degree from Central Missouri State, and then my master’s program I did with KU (University of Kansas). I took all my classes at the Edwards campus.
So what about your upbringing in Kansas City and your education in Kansas City led you on the path to become such a community servant?
So my mother passed away when I was 15. I always say that two great things she did for me before she passed away was she first gave me a spiritual foundation. She taught me about Christ. That has been my saving grace up to now. That has helped me more than anything, my faith. And, she signed me up for that scholarship program. She did that literally months before she passed away.
So those two things have made a major impact on where I’ve ended up now. So also, when my mother passed away, I got pregnant immediately. The same month she passed away. And that experience of becoming a teenage mom really shaped my desire to want to start Camp Choice.
Tell me a little bit about being a teenage mom. You talked about high school. You talked about going to college and you’re talking about being a teenage mom. Tell me about that challenge. What was that like for Janay?
Well, it was awful and it was a blessing at the same time.; Of course, any mom would want to welcome their child. But being a teenage mom I wasn’t in the mindset to be able to be happy about my pregnancy, and especially about being a single mom. So that was hard. And then as well, I felt I was an embarrassment.
And that will kind of make me cry because I’m the oldest of four, and our grandparents took us in. They came and got us when my mother passed away in a car accident. So it was very sudden. And our grandparents, like they made a huge sacrifice to take us. And there are three dads. None of the dads were, I guess, in a frame of mind to take that responsibly.
So my grandparents did. And then for the fact of me getting pregnant right after that. To add to that, I mean, that was embarrassing.
I can see how emotional this story is for you, That feeling that you had, that you felt embarrassed, you knew that your grandparents had taken on a huge responsibility, did that also gave you some drive, extra drive to be successful.
It absolutely did. And also remembering my mothers words when she was signing me up for that program. Because my mother was pregnant with me at 15 and she dropped out of high school. But she went on to get her GED. So when she was signing me up for that program, I was like right there. And she just turned around and looked at me and she said, “You’re going to go to college.” And just like the way she said it to me, it stuck with me.
That was very important to you. So how did you juggle? Did your grandparents then help you with the child and work too, so that you could get your education? Or were there some outside agencies and organizations that also stepped up to help you?
It was all of that. It does take a village. It really does. So I could not have gotten through without my family. There was an aunt who really made… all my whole family made a lot of sacrifices, with my mom’s passing, to take care of the four of us. So. But there was an aunt in particular who would stay the week over to my grandparents and go home on the weekends to help my grandparents.
o that and then when I ended up getting pregnant, this same aunt was helping me with my babies. So I would have never been able to get through those years without my family. And then just all kinds of people in the community programs, as you said. I went on Section eight.
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