photo by: AdobeStock

A University of Kansas center will play a key role in a new economic development program that aims to boost Kansas City’s economy by improving college-going rates and supporting entrepreneurship.

The Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has chosen KU’s Center for Community Health & Development to provide expertise to the foundation and its community partners. The KU center will receive a $353,000 grant as part of it selection.

The Kauffman Center, one of the top entrepreneurship advocates in the U.S., is launching a Collective Impact Initiative in Kansas City. The initiative aims to improve college access and completion, enhance workforce and career development, and support entrepreneurship.  

A key goal of the initiative is to improve equity in all three of those areas. KU’s Center for Community Health & Development has gained a national reputation for promoting equity in how communities grow and develop. The center is the operator of the website “The Community Tool Box,” which draws more than 6 million users per year who are looking for ways to build up communities.

The KU center will provide technical assistance to the Kauffman Foundation, and offer webinars and other training for the foundation and its partners in the community-building initiative, which is challenging organizations in the KC area to “think and act differently in solving some of our regions’ most pressing systems-level challenges.”