The Live Well Geary County Coalition has received confirmation from the Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Kansas, Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant application committee that 15 sites across Kansas have been chosen for a site review, and that Live Well Geary County will be one of them.

Mike Ryan, Chairman of LWGC, said the site visit will occur June 6th.

Following the site visits, a grant award of $500,000 will be made to eight applicants across Kansas. Award notification will occur on June 30th. The community initiative to begin the grant will take place on August 1st, 2017 and the funding period will be from August 1st, 2017 to July 31st, 2020. Last year LWGC was selected for a site visit, but failed to be one of the eight finalists.

The purpose of the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas initiative is to inspire long-lasting, community-wide well-being by creating supportive, healthy environments; focusing on strategies that build community engagement and transform the way residents stay healthy as they work, play and interact socially. It also incorporates more opportunities to be healthy in normal daily routines–through access in schools, worksites, health care providers’ offices, food establishments and social networks. The initiative provides community coalitions with the tools and resources needed to remove barriers and engage their communities in ways that enable healthy eating and tobacco-free, active living to become a way of life.

The Pathways Team will be represented by the Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Kansas, the Wichita State University Community Engagement Institute and the Kansas Health Institute. Technical assistance will be provided to LWGC via the Public Health Center, Thrive Allen County and Work Well Kansas.

Ryan stated, “The opportunity for Geary County to be awarded a grant of this magnitude is receiving a ground-swell response from a variety of agencies to include: the Geary Community Hospital, USD 475, Delivering Change, Geary Community Health Care Foundation, the Geary County Health Department, Junction City Commission and  Geary County Commission, Flint Hills Metropolitan Planning Organization, Wheels of Hope and Geary County Extension to name a few.”