KANSAS HEALTH FOUNDATION
309 E Douglas, Wichita, KS 672023405 kansashealth.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: At the Kansas Health Foundation, all of our work centers on our mission: To improve the health of all Kansans. We envision a culture in which every Kansan can make healthy choices where they live, work, and play.

Improve the health of all Kansans so every Kansan can make healthy choices where they live, work, and play.

Civic & Community Engagement As defined by the National Conference on Citizenship, Civic health is a measure of well-being for a community, state or nation and is determined by how actively citizens are engaged in their communities. Beyond being intrinsically good for a democratic society, civic health has a strong bearing on the quality of life in communities. A community with strong civic health is resilient, has effective governance, and is a better place to live. These ideas describe our goals for our civic and community engagement work. We want Kansas communities to have the infrastructure and resources necessary to ensure citizens are engaged and actively participating in creating more vibrant places to live, work and play for all. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation further describes the relationship between active citizen engagement and healthy communities: "In a thriving community, residents take an active role. Through civic engagement, such as voting and volunteering, people develop and use knowledge, skills and voice to cultivate positive change. Such actions can improve the conditions that influence health and well-being for all. Residents of socially-connected communities are more likely to thrive. Research suggests that individuals who feel a sense of security, belonging, and trust in their community have better health. People who don't feel connected are less inclined to act in healthy ways or work with others to promote well-being for all." Our Grantmaking Outcomes: - Health Equity Partnership Initiative. Grantees in this initiative strengthened their organizational capacity and formed new coalitions to expand grassroots advocacy across the state. As a result of this initiative 954 new partner organizations joined the grantees creating a broader network of organizations working towards health equity. - Integrated Voter Engagement Initiative. The 11 organizations involved in this initiative have engaged historically underrepresented populations (including those with low income, communities of color, immigrants and refugees and rural residents, among others) to increase their participation in democratic processes. They have organized voters around racial justice, healthcare and immigration reform and also inspired diverse residents to become involved in leadership in their communities. - Community Engagement Initiative. Grantees achieved several policy, systems and environmental changes positively impacting their communities through this initiative. Along with local partners, Thrive Allen County helped to establish a rural vocational technical center to help keep youth in the area and support greater skill development and employment. Another example is the United Way of Greater Topeka establishing a local wellness center that also serves as a family practice clinic. - Kansas News Service (KNS) Core Support. This grantee covers unique stories that no other sources does. 78% stakeholders surveyed in 2019 felt that KNS provided important health information for community members and elected officials. A majority of stakeholders agreed that KNS made a difference to their work.

Healthy Behaviors Tobacco use and obesity remain the leading causes of preventable death and illness in Kansas. According to the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), one in three Kansans are obese (34%) and over 17% use tobacco. When we start digging deeper into these issues, startling disparities emerge. For example, almost one in three (30%) Kansas adults with less than a high school education smoke compared to less than one in ten (6.8%) adults with a college degree. Compared to the general population, the proportion of Kansas adults who report participating in physical activity is lower among Latinos, African Americans and those earning less than $15K/year. To make progress toward our vision of a culture where every Kansan can make healthy choices where they live, work and play, we are tackling these disparities. Our Grantmaking Outcomes: - Tobacco Treatment and Recovery in Behavioral Health Initiative: The grantees involved in this initiative successfully advocated for the expansion of tobacco cessation benefits available to those individuals enrolled in the Kansas Medicaid program (KanCare). These patients now have greater access to more treatment options, both in the form of counseling and pharmacological treatments, with no lifetime caps. - Active Schools: Let's Move Kansas!: In collaboration with physical education teachers, classroom teachers and administrators, participating students showed an increased in physical activity and had more positive attitudes about physical activity. As a result of the increased physical activity, educators noted positive changes in the classroom environment such as decreased behavior problems, increased enjoyment of school, increased focus and attention and improved academic outcomes. - Increasing Kansans' Access to Nutritious Food Through Child Nutrition Programs and SNAP, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice: Through Kansas Appleseed's leadership and advocacy, they helped move Kansas from 50th (2014) to 48th (2015) to 45th (2016) in children's participation in the Summer Food Service Program, and also worked to help Kansas progress from 46th (2014) to 40th (2019) nationally in SNAP participation. - Kansas Breastfeeding Initiative: The ten grantees in this initiative made significant strides to increase the proportion of women exclusively breastfeeding. Their efforts contributed to Kansas being identified by the 2018 CDC Breastfeeding Report Card as one of only four states to exceed national averages and Healthy People 2020 goals in four core breastfeeding measures. - Tobacco-Free Campuses Initiative: Six higher education institutions in Kansas developed and implemented an active tobacco-free campus policy that impacted the health Kansans. - Kansas Healthy Food Initiative: Since 2017, this initiative has supported the distribution of loans, grants and technical assistance for 19 projects across 16 counties to increase access to healthy foods with the potential to impact 95,427 residents.

Educational Attainment A large and growing body of research shows that better educated individuals live longer, healthier lives than those with less education, and their children are more likely to thrive. KHF believes making strategic investments in policy, systems and environmental changes to address barriers to increased educational attainment will result in long-term improvements to health. Educators, families, businesses, public agencies, philanthropy and communities all have a role to play. Additionally, we know literacy is key to academic success and students who show up ready for kindergarten are more likely to read on grade level and perform academically throughout their school careers. Children entering kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed in the classroom rarely meet the critical milestone of reading proficiently by third grade, a strong predictor of future academic and vocational success. There is also a high correlation between vocabulary size at age three and test scores at age nine in the areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, phonological awareness and reading comprehension. Recognizing this, KHF's initial focus is on improving K-3 literacy outcomes in a long-term effort to increase graduation rates. Our Grantmaking Outcomes: - Sparking Imaginations, Building Literacy, Dollywood Foundation. During 2019, the Sparking Imaginations, Building Literacy Initiative helped the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program reach an additional 16,781 children in the eight districts prioritized by KHF. - Communities Supporting Early Literacy Initiative. The eight communities involved in this initiative have made progress in pulling together diverse coalitions of stakeholders, working to assess needs and developing community-wide action plans to improve early literacy efforts.

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