KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A push to lift up part of Kansas City has three different community organizations pooling their resources.

Troost Market Collective, The Prospect KC, and Art Garden KC have come together in an alliance called KC Culture Compass, helping all three organizations achieve their missions.

“KC Culture Compass is comprised of three women founders who are very intentional about how they’re trying to make a difference,” said Troost Market Collective’s Crissy Dastrup.

Dastrup says well-intentioned non-profits often end up working on similar issues very close to one another, which can be inefficient.

“The more access we have to a pooled network and connection, there’s a lot of benefit that comes from that,” Dastrup said.

It’s why she’s coming together with Shanita McAfee-Bryant from The Prospect and Bethany Alzanadi from Art Garden KC to work together.

“Marginalized communities deserve this kind of effort and we also can’t expect them to trust us if we’re not going to do the work,” said McAfee-Bryant.

By that she means really engaging with the people who need the help. The group’s first shot is in early October when Troostapalooza returns, celebrating the arts and culture along Troost. The next day, Gumbo Festival is launching along Vine, meaning most of the planning efforts could overlap for both events.

“We want to build giant block parties all over the city to try to drive tourism to different arts and culture areas in neighborhoods that sometimes get overlooked,” said Alzanadi.

But by giving people from other parts of town a reason to go there, KC Culture Compass can show people from all over the metro that places they might not have gone to before are culturally rich and worth their investment.

“That gives the people who live in the area the opportunity to have exposure to somebody they wouldn’t have already met because they don’t particularly leave their neighborhood,” said McAfee-Bryant.

Each of the three organizations remain separate and doing the same work they did before the alliance was created a few months ago.