Oct 17, 2023
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly announced today that $300,000 has been awarded to the 12 Rural by Choice Champions (Rural Champions) announced last year in collaboration with the Office of Rural Prosperity and the Patterson Family Foundation to address local challenges in their respective communities. The funding will allow these communities…
Read MoreOct 3, 2023
Ribbon cutting for Kansas Learning Center for health Outdoor Fitness Equipment project in Halstead For this month’s Spotlighting Prosperity, we are excited to showcase the City of Halstead and the great work they have been doing to help their community prosper.In the past year, they were awarded a SEED grant,…
Read MoreSep 29, 2023
For this month’s Spotlighting Prosperity, we are excited to showcase Morton County and the great work they have been doing to help the mental health crisis in their communities. Mental health is a pervasive issue that touches the lives of everyone, and its complexities make navigation far from straightforward. In…
Read MoreJul 27, 2023
Pictured: Joslyn Kusiak, Lacey Lies, Mike Goodwin (Kansas Trails Council), Brittney Holum, Tabatha Snodgrass Brittney Holum, one of the twelve grant recipients of the Rural by Choice Champions Program, has been hard at work on the Independence Rural Connection project. This initiative focuses on building trails, wellness, pedestrian and cyclist…
Read MoreJul 13, 2023
Post Rock Fitness Center located in downtown Lincoln, KS The June ORP spotlight highlighted Lincoln Kansas and its many great accomplishments we have been seeing recently!With the recent announcement of the Spring 2023 HEAL awardees, we thought we would first highlight Post Rock Fitness LLC. This project was part of…
Read MoreJun 2, 2023
The ORP spotlight of the month is the small rural community of Mildred. Located in Allen County, Mildred is home to around only 20 people. This community might be small, but it has a mighty “store” that will surprise you. Recently featured in the Kansas City Star, the store has…
Read MoreJun 2, 2023
When the La Crosse grocery store closed in August of 2022, Rush County Economic Development jumped to action to restore this critical service in their county. Brad Penka let us know that, with its closing, it left the entire county without a grocery store within a 25-mile radius and would…
Read MoreJun 2, 2023
Rendering of final project The ORP spotlight of the month is the City of Clyde's SEED project called "The Village Green"! Located in Cloud County, Clyde is a small town of 800 people. Their project focused on beautifying their downtown. They demolished two dilapidated buildings between their library and city…
Read MoreJun 2, 2023
In October, Lissa Sexson was hired by the County of Wallace to serve as the Rural Champion, or point-person, to move forward efforts of Community Development within the county. Prior to being awarded the Rural Champion grant, Wallace County had not had any official form of community or economic development…
Read MoreFeb 3, 2023
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly announced today that 37 murals were completed in 14 Kansas communities in 2022 through the Office of Rural Prosperity’s (ORP) Rural Mural and Public Art Grant Programming. These grants helped communities with fewer than 10,000 residents create murals and public art projects to beautify public…
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