photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Kansas Statehouse in Topeka is pictured on Dec. 20, 2023.

A group of agencies serving Douglas County have been awarded more than $9 million combined as part of the Kansas Department for Children and Families’ new grant program dedicated to reducing intergenerational poverty.

According to a Tuesday news release from DCF, the new “2Gen Kansas” program is awarding $11.5 million — taken from the agency’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding — to 10 organizations that serve families in Kansas. The program is based off a “two-generation” approach developed by a coalition called Ascend at the Aspen Institute, which works to end intergenerational poverty by supporting children and their parents or care providers as a family unit to move the whole family forward.

Here’s a summary of each of the five grantees that will serve Douglas County as part of the new program:

• The Kansas Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs was awarded $3,487,725 and will serve 13 Kansas counties, including Douglas County. The alliance’s statewide 2Gen project will provide subgrants to partner clubs who, together with another 27 partner organizations, will expand opportunities for low-income children and their families to increase their economic stability, make progress on their educational goals, deepen their social connections and improve their health and well-being.

• Mirror Inc. — a not-for-profit corporation providing behavioral health care, prevention programs and residential reentry services in seven counties including Douglas County — was awarded a $350,000 grant for its Work for Success Program. The program will support the formation and maintenance of two-parent families through healthy relationship skills training, parenting connections training, prosocial leisure and educational activities for families.

• KVC Behavioral Healthcare was awarded $1,891,435 for its 2Gen program, which will provide one-on-one, in-home, virtual and group interventions to families, ultimately addressing the underlying risk factors contributing to poverty. A family navigator will assist the entire family in connecting with various services that meet the family’s needs. The agency serves 27 counties including Douglas County.

• O’Connell Children’s Shelter was awarded $609,447 for its Generations Program, which will serve Douglas County families at risk of encountering the child welfare and juvenile justice systems by providing whole-family services aligned with the “Homebuilders” program model. Homebuilders is a home- and community-based intensive family preservation services treatment program designed to avoid unnecessary placement of children and youth into foster care, group care, psychiatric hospitals or juvenile justice facilities.

• SparkWheel, a school-based organization working to remove barriers for students and families in 15 Kansas counties including Douglas County, was awarded $2,726,941. The agency, previously known as Communities in Schools, strives to break the cycle of generational poverty by placing staff to work full-time daily inside schools to partner with teachers, mobilize the community and offer extra help for students to thrive. The grant-funded program will target family members and students in pre-K through college attending 43 schools, both rural and urban, across those 15 counties.

Those agencies’ contracts with DCF will be in place from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026, with an option for renewal of one additional two-year grant.

“We believe this approach will build family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives,” DCF Secretary Laura Howard said in the release. “This support will increase opportunities for families to become stable, connected and empower them to progress towards their personal, educational and career goals.”

The agencies will serve as an access point for families in applying for food assistance, the United States Department of Agriculture’s commodity programs, child care assistance, low-income energy assistance and vocational rehabilitation services. The agencies will be required to participate in ongoing training and collaborative meetings, and will also recommend one parent being served by each organization to serve on a statewide 2Gen parent advisory council.