photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., is pictured on Sept. 23, 2021.

Douglas County leaders on Wednesday voiced interest in exploring a new racial equity initiative from a national nonprofit that focuses on achieving “structural well-being,” and county staff may bring it back as a more formal proposal at some point in the future.

At the Douglas County Commission’s meeting, commissioners heard a brief update from county staff about ongoing equity initiatives, but also about an initiative the county isn’t yet a part of — the “Structural Well-Being Framework,” a product of a Black-led national nonprofit called the W. Haywood Burns Institute.

As the Journal-World reported, the framework is intended to help entities like county governments “design and build new systems of public policies, institutional and inclusive practices, cultural representations and other norms to ensure belonging and strengthen families, communities and individual well-being for positive life outcomes.”

Commissioners Shannon Reid and Patrick Kelly, in particular, voiced an interest in the framework being implemented here in Douglas County.

“I really enjoyed reading about the Haywood Burns Institute; I think I’m really impressed with the language they used and how they’re approaching this,” Kelly said. “Is that something that you think we may use? I’m trying to understand how we may engage in that work.”

When exactly that might happen remains to be seen, though. Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky said she’d like for county staff to have some time to flesh out exactly what a partnership with the nonprofit could look like before bringing any formal proposal back to the commission.

That isn’t to say that the county hasn’t done any work to understand the initiative. Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur told commissioners that county staff had been in touch with the administrative staff in a county that has been utilizing the framework — Ramsey County, Minnesota, home to St. Paul.

Later in the discussion, Kelly added that he felt the county had made some good progress in considering racial equity on another front — in the process of allocating American Rescue Plan Act funding, when the county opted to make equity impact a point of consideration as staff reviewed applications.

“We did quite a lot through the ARPA process, and those were questions that we weren’t asking before,” Kelly said.

In other business, the commission:

* Approved a pair of conditional use permits, one for an outdoor recreation facility just south of Eudora and the other for a vacation rental south of Lawrence.

The first permit request is for “Well Wilderness Kids,” a therapeutic nature center which operates mainly out of Olathe, according to the applicant. The permit in Douglas County is for a site used by the business as a location for small-group activities.

The second permit request is for a home at 1017 East 1600 Road, which the applicants want to rent out as a VRBO rental when they are away.

* Heard an update from a government relations firm following the end of the Kansas legislative session in late April.