Kansas City Mom Collective is featuring an organization each month that supports Kansas City families. We hope to introduce you to a new organization and provide ways you can support their mission. To nominate an organization to be featured here, email us.
Flourish: A Furniture Bank is Kansas City’s only furniture bank providing essential home furnishings through a referral process, impacting thousands of lives annually.
Through partnering with social service agencies, Flourish provides wrap-around services to empower families to overcome housing insecurity by collecting, repairing, and providing donated furniture and home essentials for the entire home.
The Story of Flourish: A Furniture Bank
Flourish was born in 2009 in the garage of Mary and Kevin Jones, a former HUD employee. In their community work, the founders saw families living in empty homes, with case managers unable to find adequate or affordable furnishings. With a group of volunteers, Flourish began as neighbors collecting and distributing furniture for the community, eventually becoming a ministry of Resurrection, a United Methodist Church, and then its own independent nonprofit in 2020. Since then, Flourish has grown in scale and complexity while staying focused on its sole purpose: to create safe, comfortable, and well-furnished homes.
How Flourish Helps
Families come to Flourish from many different experiences and situations. With a referral through one of the over 60 partnering nonprofit agencies that Flourish works with, families are allowed to make a shopping appointment to come select items for their homes.
Through every facet of their program, they honor and uplift the dignity of the families and individuals they serve and work to make sure everyone in Kansas City has a safe, comfortable, and dignified place to call their own.
Last year Mary** was referred to Flourish by Safehome, a domestic violence shelter. With the help of her case manager, Mary, and her 4-year-old son had just moved from the transitional living center to a new apartment. After choosing beds, a sofa, a kitchen table, chairs, décor, linens, cookware and more from the showroom, she left the following testimony. “When I decided to leave my son’s dad and flee to safety, I left almost all of my personal belongings behind. Flourish helped me get my son and me into our apartment with enough furniture and other items to make the house feel like a home again. Thank you so much for helping me get back on my feet!”
Ways to Support Flourish
Without volunteers, the amazing work of Flourish would not be possible. Volunteers and donations take on all sorts of forms.
Volunteer
Flourish has a wide range of volunteer opportunities, from collecting furniture to assisting guests, to processing and repairing donations. No matter your skill level or interest, your service will make a big impact on the community.
Volunteers ages 12 and up can serve on all our regular serve days, and Flourish hosts a special evening on Tuesday nights where families can come in and serve together. Opportunities range from sorting donations, building sheet and towel sets, sewing and dishes. An ever-changing inventory of donations means no shortage of tasks to do. Flourish is open Tuesday-Saturday, so it’s a great place to earn community service hours for school, as well as learn new hobbies and skills all while helping the community. Check out their volunteer page for more information.
Donate Furniture and Household Items
Flourish furnishes hundreds of homes each year entirely through donations from the community. By donating gently used home furnishings, it ensures belongings stay out of the landfill and continue to bring joy and meaning to a family’s home. Items must follow the donation guidelines.
You can donate items to Flourish in three ways.
- Drop off furniture and household goods at their donation dock at 11971 Grandview Rd., Suite A, Grandview, MO. Dock donations are accepted 9 a.m.-noon on Tuesdays–Saturdays.
- Schedule a volunteer pickup. Available if items can be in a garage, driveway, or at the street.
- If you don’t have items to donate you may access their online wishlists of items needed in their showroom.
Make A Monetary Gift 
Individual contributions are critical to Flourish’s long-term financial sustainability. Donations of any size have a huge impact on supporting the critical program costs including their 28,000 square-foot warehouse, workshop, showroom space, box trucks for moving and more.
In addition, contributions can be made through Flourish’s annual events; The Art of Home Gala and their Running of the Beds a community festival topped off by a bed race.
Flourish: A Furniture Bank can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
**name changed for privacy and safety.
