photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County Food Systems Specialist Connie Fitzpatrick shares her experience of working on an imitative to showcased the stories of Black, Indigenous and BIPOC entrepreneurs in Douglas County with county commissioners on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.

In 2023, the entrepreneurship group Forward Cities visited Douglas County with a big question: What can the community do to better support its entrepreneurs of color?

Now, more than a year after talking with local Black, Indigenous and people of color who run their own businesses here, Forward Cities is back, and it plans to share its results in a special video presentation later this month at the Lied Center.

Douglas County leaders heard from Forward Cities president and CEO Fay Horwitt and a couple of local residents who took part in the project at their meeting on Wednesday. And while they didn’t show the video itself, the project participants said they were excited about the direction their effort was going in.

“I’m really optimistic about this work and most interested in how it will continue to sustain,” said Douglas County Food Systems Specialist Connie Fitzpatrick.

According to the commission’s meeting agenda, the project has been part of Forward Cities’ E3 Nation Tour, an initiative aimed at fostering more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems across the United States. The engagement was supported by a $35,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan Act, allocated by Douglas County, with additional funding from the City of Lawrence, the Douglas County Community Foundation, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, and Network Kansas.

Jill Jolicoeur, assistant county administrator, described Forward Cities as “a national leader in assisting communities in understanding what a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem looks like.” She said that the period after COVID showed that working with business owners of color was a priority.

“We set off on that journey after observing some of the experiences that our entrepreneurs of color experience coming out of the pandemic,” Jolicoeur said.

Horwitt, via videoconference, said that Forward Cities was in Douglas County for three days in February 2023, listening to entrepreneurs of color about their needs. One of the things that the community will need to work on, Horwitt said, is shifting its mindset to see all kinds of businesses and partnerships as valuable to the economy.

Fitzpatrick said she joined this initiative to support Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs in applying for grants through the Heartland Regional Food Business Center, which has several partners throughout Kansas like Douglas County Extension and provides a grant program for small- to medium-sized food-related businesses in the region. And Nicole Rials, who has her own private practice at K. N. Rials Therapy and Consulting, said that the project has been a great opportunity to engage with other entrepreneurs, who often perform many different roles while also enhancing and enriching the community’s culture.

The video that came out of this project will be shown at the Lied Center on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m., and the public is invited to attend.

In other business, commissioners:

• Heard a presentation from open space leaders with a focus on the Wakarusa River Corridor, from the Clinton Lake dam to Eudora.

The conservation plan will be called the Corridor Vision Plan, and it will analyze the historical context of the area and future scenarios of flooding risks, water demands, nutrient flows, habitats and more to develop a program that will guide decisions over the coming years.

The project is part of a broader county initiative to safeguard open spaces, called the Open Space Plan. In 2022, commissioners allocated $2.78 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to support efforts outlined in the plan. This Open Space Plan focuses on three main priorities: improving existing parks, funding private land conservation programs and preserving the Wakarusa River Corridor.

• Heard the results of a pilot watershed study conducted on Washington Creek, located southwest of Lawrence. In collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Kansas Department of Agriculture worked to identify potential flood mitigation strategies for further evaluation.

The project assessed the benefits of various mitigation actions under both current and projected future development conditions. Proposed solutions may include nature-based approaches such as stream buffers or flood storage areas.

• Reviewed a drafted legislative statement in preparation for the 2025 Kansas legislative session, set to begin in January. The statement outlines a set of key priorities and issues that the county plans to share with local legislators as well as lawmakers statewide.

Among the top priorities are supporting local governance on matters of land use, housing, and taxation; enhancing behavioral health and human services; balancing service costs with the rising cost of living; regulating renewable energy while promoting sustainability; and addressing critical infrastructure needs, including transportation, water systems, and broadband.

• Received an update on the American Rescue Plan Act and authorized the county administrator to enter into contract extensions for awards of ARPA funding; create and sign an interagency agreement or Memorandum of Understanding that commits the funding from ARPA to specific purposes or projects; and reallocate funds that can’t be used before Dec. 31, 2024.

• Approved the proposed amendments to the Douglas County Food Policy Council bylaws. The council’s mission is to foster a resilient and sustainable local food system by identifying opportunities, addressing challenges, and providing policy recommendations to local officials.