Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosana Polanco.
Hi rosana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Rosana Polanco, mother of 3 beautiful daughters(19, 14, 10), Kansas City, MO native, and cofounder – Executive Director of Embrace Your Shine, a new 501c3, disrupting the tradeoff between survival and success for young people (16-30 years old) who are facing Hidden Homelessness while attending college or workforce training programs.
Ive been working on this launch for 3 years now. Ive never done anything like this before so I learn as I go and I am very intentional and genuine with everything that I do to make this vision come to fruition. I grew up throughout the Northeast KCMO area so I am very passionate and excited to create our first Embrace Life Campus – six supportive small homes in a cottage setting to help participants get the support and services they need to get to the next level.
Who better to create an organization than individuals who have the grass-roots and lived experience within our under invested communities.
Our goal is to provide opportunity for participants to APPLY their skills by giving them back peace of mind on the high cost of living. They will be responsible for meeting quarterly requirements but one being, to participate in our financial literacy curriculum built with the help of UMKC’s BLOT program with Dr. Jocelyn Evans and Miriya Gutierrez, UMKC 2026 graduate, both of them are building out the 1st and 2nd phase to help residents pay little to no cost for rent and using those dollars to reinvest into themselves instead and funds go towards their first home purchase or towards their business venture, once they transition out of their 12 or 24 month term with us at Embrace Your Shine. EYS has worked along side C.U.Bluum, EYS Fractional COO, & Miriam El Nehmani, UMKC student & EYS Youth Advisory Board Member, in the development of our 1st creditable Emotional Resilience 20wk program to help residents regain self-belief and achieve economic mobility.
We have recently submitted a co-development RFP with our local HAKC to leverage their institutional oversight, PBV that will help make that goal possible for the 6 units on the Embrace Life Campus.. So excited for whats to come!
The acre of land for our first Embrace Life campus was donated to us by Monolith Properties. We have also had 90% pre-construction costs taken care of, secured our first few grants this year (2026) with one of them being from the Health Forward Foundation for Capacity Building. Within almost 3 years we have been able to raise a little over $300k, including in-kind donations.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
its definitely been a rollercoaster! lol Building myself and building a meaningful business, from nothing is not easy what so ever.
Like I said before Ive never done nothing like this before so Ive been learning as I go. Theres NO direct blue print out there that helps you get started from start to finish in becoming a nonprofit housing provider/ developer. There IS ton of education, information, resources, and mentors to help with pieces that I was left with to try and put together strategically myself.
Until D.J. (our now fractional COO) and I met Sarah and Starla with Amethyst Place at a Housing Summit, hosted my LISC KC, last year. DJ stood up in the room full of people that gathered for a panel discussion, to ask: That information is all great to know but how exactly do we start a nonprofit development organization.
Sarah heard DJ and approached us afterwards with the idea of starting a pilot program to address the issues we were facing as basically an emerging nonprofit housing provider. I agreed right away to be their first genie-pig! lol I prayed for this opportunity. GOD is always on time.
Since then, Sarah launched Amethyst Amplified, secured funding from Kauffman Foundation to have Embrace Your Shine be the first organization to pilot it with.
Sarah has been a huge blessing! She has showed us what worked for them and was hasn’t. She also helped organize my vision strategically. She said we had a lot of the pieces we needed. Thats when I knew there actually was a method to my madness lol
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The idea of Embrace Your Shine really bloomed from my own personal experiences in life.
Growing up as the oldest of 7 to a single mother who consistently worked 2-3 jobs, I was responsible for majority of the responsibilities. When I was young we did live in shelters, lived place to place,.. the whole nine.
I’ve had a job since I was 15 years old. I was in the food industry for 16 years. I was determined to provide a better life for my own family. But by 2020 I hit rock bottom and realized that path no longer served me.
I really wanted to figure out how to take care of my children physically AND financially and no longer have to choose between the two.
So I decided to take a leap of faith and jump into entrepreneurship with both feet without fully knowing exactly what that meant. To bet on myself. I made so many scarifies! Now I don’t recommend everyone to do it that way lol so long story short that is how I decided to create Embrace Your Shine.
After being connected to Gary Henke in 2023 and our visions being in alignment he helped with getting the land donated and taking care of the pre construction costs, for this specific niche of young people that have similar stories too mines. He is dedicated in investing into the next generation of leaders by getting them into stability. He is now retired but had businesses in Northeast KC for 10+ years.
I am currently on the Board of the Lykins Neighborhood Association as their VP and Vice Chair of their housing and development committee. I am very involved with my community and volunteer on a consistent basis with many local organizations.
I am proud of putting in the work needed in all aspects of my life to become the best version of myself and become the person I needed growing up in this community.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I wouldn’t fully say it is my favorite memory but it is a clear memory of seeing my stressed out mom complain about putting $5 dollars of gas in her run down car. Remembering gas was under a dollar then.
And thinking to myself that one day she wouldn’t have to worry about that and I would be able to fill up the tank with $20…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://embraceyourshine.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/embrace_your_shine23?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosana-polanco-514518310
