Geary Community Healthcare Foundation will be one of the key partners in delivering services in the Lifting Young Families Toward Excellence project. The project, which will provide parent education and life-skills support to pregnant and parenting teenagers and young adults, will be funded by a $941,475 grant awarded to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health.

Program goals include developing a support network for young parents and their families, integrating strategies that reinforce parenting skills and enhance family relationships, fostering the economic stability of young families through education completion and employment, and improving relationship-skilled among young parents.

Other key partners in delivering the services will include the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas and Baby Talk Pregnancy and Newborn Education of Sedgwick County.

A comprehensive process and outcome evaluation conducted by the University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research will ensure accountability through quality improvement and performance monitoring throughout this project. Grant writing support for this application was also provided by KU-CPPR.