We’ve been doing a lot of deep listening to Kansans concerning Upward Mobility. We’ve collected perspectives from advocates, experts, community members, practitioners and more to identify the strategies needed to move the needle on this major health challenge. But how do you take thousands of individual ideas and data points and turn them into something we can act on?

You have to create a mechanism for it. 

For the Kansas Health Foundation, FuseKS is that mechanism. FuseKS is the point in our Arc of Mobilization where all of the ideas generated are turned into actionable strategies, and where we co-create a Blueprint that we can carry forward in our work.  

The Blueprint Takes Shape

The thousands of conversations and data points we collected over the past year coalesced into 19 ideas we brought to the participants of FuseKS 2026. 

For a day and a half, more than 100 Kansans worked to refine those overarching ideas and narrow them down to a final set of strategies that were specific enough to drive change and manageable enough to activate broadly.

During a Rapid Fire Exercise on the first day of the convening, every attendee weighed in on every strategy. Not just the ones they cared about, but also the ones they weren’t quite sure about, the ones they had no interest in and the ones they might have had to hold their nose on. 

At the end of the exercise, we had captured 3,100 unique comments. Our team worked through them overnight, and the next morning, we had a draft Blueprint. It was more focused than the original 19 ideas we walked in with, but it wasn’t finished. 

After reviewing the draft Blueprint, attendees had the opportunity to provide feedback on what they liked, what worried them and what they felt was missing. They flagged strategies that had been lost in translation from the Rapid Fire Exercise, and they debated language, framing and assumptions. Some feedback encouraged us to be more specific, while others pushed us to make sure strategies didn’t get watered down.

It was a live working session to shape the Blueprint, ensuring every element of the final draft represented what Kansans had told us mattered most. 

11 Strategies to Impact Upward Mobility

The final Blueprint carries 11 strategies across eight categories, each built to be embraced by the broadest possible coalition and activated collaboratively.

1. Language, Metrics & Data Integration: Bring about common language, key metrics and enhanced community insights
2. Early Childhood Education: Expand access to early childhood education through long-term, sustainable and diversified investment
3. Higher Education: Tailor higher education paths to Kansans earning below the ALICE threshold
4. Workforce Skills & Pathways: Design career pathways and employer-based training for Kansans within reach of the ALICE threshold – propelling them above and beyond
5. Workforce Supports: Connect Kansans to wraparound supports across workforce, education and community settings
6. Workforce Supports: Incentivize paid leave, flexible scheduling and employee assistance
7. Workforce Supports: Ensure working families have access to affordable, reliable childcare
8. Entrepreneurship & Small Business: Strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem: infrastructure, capital access and long-term operating support
9. Housing: Broaden first-time homeownership support, strengthen renter stability and establish housing trust funds
10. Financial Protection & Debt Relief: Connect Kansans to fair and affordable financial products
11. Financial Protection & Debt Relief: Reduce the burden of medical, student loan, criminal justice and municipal debt – enact reforms that prevent re-accumulation

The Blueprint is done, but the Blueprint itself is not the point. The point is what happens next.

Download the Blueprint for Upward Mobility

Plug In, Sign On or Fund Change

Before leaving FuseKS, we asked attendees to decide where they wanted to show up for the Blueprint. They marked the strategies they wanted to lead, the ones they wanted to help with and the ones they wanted to stay in the loop on.

Now it’s your turn.

• Plug In: Want to lead the activation of a strategy, help out or stay in the know? Fill out this form, and we’ll connect you to the work.
• Sign On: Willing to sign on as an official co-creator, activator or ambassador of the Blueprint? Fill out this form, and we’ll get your organization on the list.
• Fund Change: Want to deploy grant dollars or investment capital to activate strategies? Schedule a meeting with our Director of Philanthropic Partnerships.

From Words to Action

Four KHF funding streams are opening this year and next to activate Blueprint strategies:

• Innovation Grants | Live Now: Mini-grants up to $5,000 for exploring new ways to tackle the complex challenges facing Kansans.
• Transformation Grants | Application Live June 2026: Grants ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 for bold, regional or statewide efforts.
• Mass Action Grants | Application Live Fall 2026: Mini-grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 for local action and rapid experimentation.
• Impact Investments | Live Now: Capital deployments of $250,000 or more that generate a financial return.

More details will follow as each window opens.

Together, we built a Blueprint. Now we’re putting it in people’s hands to carry the work forward. Will you carry it, too?