“To improve the health of all Kansans.” It’s been our mission since day one. It provides clarity about what we do and who we serve and reminds us of the endless opportunities and awesome responsibility we have to make a difference.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been able to be a small part of some very significant health improvements. We’ve helped to bring awareness to the dangers of second-hand smoke with the “Take it Outside” campaign. We’ve helped bring standard physical education curriculum to Kansas schools to promote physical activity at an early age. And, we advocated for the addition of healthcare professionals through the establishment of nurse practitioners and increasing the number of physician assistants, to expand access to care across the state.

In 2018, we continued our efforts to positively impact health by leveraging partnerships, engaging Kansans and identifying the changing health needs of our state.

• We celebrated the conclusion of our Giving Resources to Our World (GROW) initiative, a 20-year, $60 million investment in community foundations across the state. Through the GROW partnerships, community foundations were able to leverage the KHF investments to increase total assets from $19 million to more than $693 million.
• KHF launched a civic engagement initiative, “Kansas Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE): Health Depends on a Vibrant Democracy,” in an effort to connect the importance of voting and civic engagement with long-term health. Through a $2.25 million grant, KHF was able to support ten organizations as they incorporate year-round, non-partisan voter engagement into their existing work to serve at-risk populations. In addition, KHF supported this effort with a primary and general election awareness campaign, “GoVoteKansas,” to increase voter registration and turnout.
• We released a research study at our KHF Symposium to look at our Kansas population trends. This study, from the Kansas Health Institute (our partner organization), looked at changing demographics in Kansas between 1960 and 2016 and projected population changes through 2066. The findings indicate that our population will concentrate more in urban areas, will see an increasing number of older residents and will become increasingly diverse. By 2066, the Hispanic population is expected to grow by nearly 287 percent. Understanding how our population will change helps KHF to strategically plan for the best health of our residents and the betterment of our communities.

Overall, we provided grant funding to more than 100 Kansas organizations, though an investment of nearly $24 million dollars, to support healthier people and build stronger, healthier communities. With these partnerships, we can strategically focus our work in four areas:

• Access to care (medical, dental and behavioral health)
• Healthy behaviors (access to healthy food, making physical activity a priority, reducing tobacco use)
• Civic and community engagement (increasing voter engagement and building stronger communities)
• Educational attainment (increasing literacy levels, graduation rates and workforce readiness)

Through partnerships and community collaboratives in all corners of the state, we’ve “improved the health of all Kansans” in immeasurable ways. But our work is not done. Understanding the changing demographics of our state and armed with health data, we can look at how and where we can make the most impact for our residents, our communities and our state. As good stewards of the resources entrusted to us, we are privileged to support positive health change today and for future generations to come – so EVERY Kansan can make healthy choices where they live, work and play.