On May 22, 2008, volunteers from the Department of Housing & Urban Development along with key partners in the community hosted a Youth Job and Resource Fair. "The event was a great success", said Ursula McLendon. We had well over seventy youth participants applying for jobs and signing up for summer programs with dozens of Kansas City's community and business leaders. Just a few of the community and business partners included: The Unified Government of Wyandotte County, The Kansas City Kansas Housing Authority, KIDZone, Workforce Partnership, Price Chopper, Worlds of Fun, The Legends Shopping Center, The Woodlands, Dollar General, Gear-Up, McDonalds and The Haven Center.

The success of this event was directly attributable to the hard work and coordinating efforts of the staffs at the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and the Kansas City Kansas Housing Authority as well as the support provided by a group of volunteers from HUD. During a recent consultation with HUD representatives, staff from the Kansas City Housing Authority identified a need to address the growing number of unemployed youth during the summer months. In the past, there have been funding opportunities available for summer jobs for the youth, but the downturn in the economy had made these opportunities much rarer than before.

When Marc Marcono of the KC, KS Housing Authority expressed his concern about area youth causing potential problems this summer due to unemployment and funding cutbacks in summer programs, A team of HUD employee's led by Ursula McLendon, referred to as (TeamHUD), responded with the idea of a "Youth Job and Resource Fair". In a pleasant coincidence, Ursula was just completing HUD's Leadership Development Program during the summer, and her team of volunteers was looking for customer service related projects. Members of TeamHUD include:

For information, Please contact Ursula McLendon (913) 551-6817.