July 24, 2018
All Levels of KSRE Represented at Kansas Poverty Conference
State, regional, district and local levels of K-State Research and Extension were represented at the recent Kansas Poverty Conference held in Topeka, July 18-20. Among the 250 conference participants were Extension professionals: Lisa Martin, Shawnee County Extension; Deb Wood, Central Kansas Extension District, Tandy Rundus, Northeast Region SNAP-Ed Specialist, Sue Sing Lim, state SNAP-Ed evaluator and Elaine Johannes, state Extension Specialist in family and youth development. During the conference Johannes and collaborators presented their initiative, which is supported by a Sunflower Foundation grant, to establish the state-wide Stronger Ground network of community-based poverty reduction programs.
The conference is organized annually by the Kansas Association of Community Action Programs (kacap.org) and focuses on social, health, cultural and economic impacts of poverty. Along with information about the impacts of potential work requirements to KanCare, TANF and SNAP program recipients, the statewide “10 by 30” campaign to reduce the Kansas poverty rate from 12% to 10% by 2030 was introduced at the conference. The 2019 Kansas Poverty Conference is scheduled for July 17-19 in Topeka.