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Ron Wilson
KSU Team engaged in Phillips County
When a group of community and county representatives from Phillips County, Kansas visited the KSU campus early in 2006, they were looking for resources and ideas to help the county develop a vision and work together to achieve it. They were also excited about a new initiative for a county-wide community development model which was being launched in the county, with support from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation of Logan, Kansas. The visitors heard ideas from Agricultural Economics Innovation Center, the Office for Local Government, Landscape Architecture, the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development, and Extension Community Development.
The Phillips County group was excited about the possibilities that KSU could offer. The Hansen Foundation had already crafted a working agreement with a team from KSU (which included professional facilitation consultant Ron Alexander) to facilitate the visioning and planning process. More than 200 residents of Phillips County attended the first facilitated public meeting, which introduced the visioning process and strengthened public involvement in the planning. A " Discover Phillips County " steering committee was then established to work with the KSU team to articulate the vision, prioritize work projects, develop working plans, and link to available resources.
One important aspect of this effort is that the community development process is not a pre-determined template designed by the KSU team. The work that we are engaged in continues to evolve with the direction and wisdom of the " Discover Phillips County " steering committee. This creates a learning situation for everyone involved.
"Discover Phillip County " initiated projects are being planned to kick off in 2007.
We believe this is an exciting model for community engagement: Bringing together private sector foundation funding and university expertise with a grass-roots, county-wide effort to produce results.