Heartland Community Foundation
The Heartland Community Foundation is hosting a Strategic Doing event in August, just for local teenagers.
The aim is to engage area high schoolers and find out what they think would make local communities even stronger. Teenagers notice things adults and community leaders don’t notice, and Heartland wants to hear their big ideas.
The Ellis County Teen Talkback will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Aug. 11 at the Hays Public Library in the upstairs young adult room. Pizza and soda will be served. All teens who attend will be entered into a drawing to win an Amazon gift card.
High schoolers from Hays High, Ellis High, Victoria High, Thomas More Prep-Marian, or those who are home schooled are invited to attend and share their thoughts.
The Strategic Doing aspect will encourage collaboration and action steps, if warranted, but the key objective is to gather feedback and opinion about the strengths and gaps in local community. The feedback gathered will be shared with community leaders and applicable organizations.
Strategic Doing events are supported by the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in all 26 northwest Kansas counties and facilitated by community foundations. Participation in the Ellis County Teen Talkback would be an activity to include on students' resume or in scholarship applications.
“We know teenagers are busy, but we’re hoping they can set aside a little bit of time to come and tell us what they’d like to see in Ellis County. They can dream big – any idea is welcome. We just want to hear from them,” said Sarah Meitner, executive director at the Heartland Community Foundation. “We hope to engage teenagers more regularly at the Heartland Community Foundation.”
Meitner also noted some teenagers are already familiar with the Heartland Community Foundation’s grant process. The foundation awarded more than $5,000 last fall to a teenager who applied for an audio-visual project. It also awarded more than $17,000 to two teen groups in its spring cycle for a project in Ellis County and one in Trego County.