On a cold November night in Kansas City, a concerned single mother stood afraid and alone on a dark street. She had been trying to contact her son, Antonio “Pee Wee” Thompson, all day and to no avail, so she drove to the apartment complex where he had recently moved. She knocked but received no answer; she asked maintenance to let her in, but they couldn’t. She called 911…and waited. When the first responders emerged from his apartment, her worst fears were confirmed: Pee Wee was gone. Her son had been murdered on Thanksgiving eve, 2011.

Over a six-hour period, Rosilyn Temple remained at the scene, wondering about the policemen and fire department personnel who had been dispatched. “What is happening? What are they doing?” she asked.

“I couldn’t believe there was no community liaison for me,” Temple said. “I knew there had to a better way to support victims’ families.”

So she created one.

In early 2012, Temple learned about Mothers in Charge, Inc., founded in Philadelphia by Dorothy Johnson-Speight, PhD, MHS, LPC, who lost her son to homicide in 2003. Johnson-Speight led her through the process of building a Kansas City chapter. In 2013, Temple launched Kansas City Mothers in Charge (KC MIC) as a program of Kansas City’s Ad Hoc Group Against Crime and later, the organization received funding from the Kansas City Missouri Police Department (KCPD) to move into its own office space and expand its programs and services. KC MIC was incorporated in Missouri later that year and, in 2015, granted 501(c)(3) federal tax exemption status.

Since that time, thousands of clients in Kansas City have been served through KC Mothers in Charge. To learn more about the services we provide, click the button below.