Kansas Department for Children and Families providing $10 million in grants

(The Center Square) – The Kansas Department for Children and Families awarded its final round of Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas (SPARK) Community Capacity Grants this week.DCF awarded nearly $10 million worth of grants to five organizations working to do the following, according to a press release from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s office, “coordinating services to meet essential health, housing, educational, and nutrition needs; expanding educational, health, and financial empowerment programs; increasing training for Court Appointed Special Advocate volunteers; and expanding services for Kansas children and families.”Kelly said the funding will help set children up for future success.“It is vital that Kansas children and their families receive essential physical and mental health services, housing, nutrition, educational and advocacy services throughout the state,” Kelly said. “These grants will ensure that children and families have access to the supports necessary for success.” DCF Secretary Laura Howard praised grant recipients for their work helping children and families.“At DCF, we believe that communities bring strength through relationships and resources,” Howard said in the release. “These organizations are doing just that by offering children and families opportunities to learn and coordinate health, housing, and nutritional services available through state and local resources.” The grant recipients include: Unite Us ($7.7 million), Community Green Farms ($1.052 million), Children’s First ($600,000), Kansas CASA Association ($375,000), and CASA of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties ($125,000). Unite Us will use its funding to “provide software and implementation services for three years to provide DCF users and users from other Kansas agencies, county governments, and health care providers with closed-loop referrals to community-based organizations to help address a client’s social care needs,” according to the release.Closed loop allows authorized users to do the following, the release said:Receive notification of incoming social care requests or referrals. Securely access relevant social care information regarding the social needs and care journey of individuals they serve, with their documented consent and consistent with applicable law. Communicate with referring organizations. Send social care referrals on behalf of the individual, track and store the outcome of that referral, and track and store the outcome of services delivered within a single client record. Community Green Farms will use its funding to implement its Farm to School initiative in schools in Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Labette, Linn, Montgomery, and Wilson counties.”This initiative includes constructing a vertical hydroponic farm classroom to grow hyper-organic produce that can be consumed in their cafeteria and provided to hunger relief programs,” the release said. “Schools will be able to provide their students with more nutritious foods, and the farms will also provide classrooms that can be used in a variety of curriculum such as health and nutrition, culinary arts, marketing and business, agriculture, and botany.”Additionally, Children’s First will use its funding to convert the Woodland United Methodist Church (WUMC) in Wichita into a Community Center.”Through full use of the rooms, there will be an expansion and enhancement of educational, health, and financial empowerment programs for the benefit of under-resourced Wichita residents,” the release said. “The Community Center will also provide office and event space for other Wichita-area nonprofits that share this vision.”Meanwhile, the Kansas CASA Association is using its grant to expand its operations.It plans to use the grant to “increase statewide knowledge of the CASA mission, attract potential CASA volunteers, staff, and board members, reach those in need of advocacy services, and streamline access to advocacy services,” according to the release.Plus, the CASA of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties will use its grant funding to renovate its volunteer training space “to allow for improved and expanded training capacity,” according to the release.”This will include both in-person and virtual training options,” the release said. “The project will enable staff, peer mentors, advocates, and those they work with to interact regardless of their location and provide a higher-level training experience. “