In order to best combat the major issues and challenges facing our state today, Kansans must have the opportunity to gather and discuss possible solutions and progress for the future. Following an announcement by the Kansas Health Foundation, active citizens from around the state will soon have increased space to meet for these critical sessions.

The Foundation has announced its intention to construct a new building, adjacent to its current offices in downtown Wichita, with meeting facilities able to accommodate both large and small groups of grantees or program participants. This new facility will also serve as a new statewide headquarters for the Kansas Leadership Center, an organization launched by the Foundation in 2005 to foster civic leadership with the goal to create stronger, healthier communities.

According to Ed O'Malley, president and CEO of the Kansas Leadership Center, the availability of meeting space plays an important role in the work of the Kansas Leadership Center."

At its core, our work at the Kansas Leadership Center is about creating environments where Kansans learn deeply about their own leadership capacity," O'Malley said. "Learning about leadership is best done through engagement, deliberation, dialogue and good-natured debate. We are glad this new building will be designed specifically for those purposes."

All meeting space in the new building will be designed to maximize flexibility as far as the types of meetings or events it may host. Though final design decisions have not been made at this point, preliminary plans call for the building to include a townhall meeting space that will seat 200 people and allow them to both interact with each other or enjoy a more traditional auditorium seating arrangement. Other areas will have the flexibility to be large meeting rooms or divided into smaller spaces as needed.

The announcement was welcome news for Kansans who have participated in past programs and initiatives of the Foundation and the Center. Betsy Wearing, executive director of the Greater Salina Community Foundation, has interacted with the Foundation for more than a decade through the GROW Initiative, an effort to build the endowments and capacities of community foundations in Kansas.

"As someone who has been involved in several Kansas Health Foundation initiatives, I know first-hand that this expanded meeting facility will be put to very good use by community foundations and other philanthropic organizations across Kansas," Wearing said.

Those feelings were echoed by Kenya Cox, a past participant of the Kansas Leadership Center's Context and Competencies program.

"I'm personally excited about what this new building and its meeting facilities mean for Kansas," said Cox, senior constituent services representative for the office of U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo. "I think about the training that has already made a difference in the civic leadership in Kansas and how, with this new facility, KLC's influence will only spread farther and faster."

Upon completion, the new facility will be of immediate benefit to both the Foundation and the Center. The Center plans to bring approximately 1,000 Kansans a year to its headquarters for leadership training programs as well as additional people for meetings and conferences, including alumni meetings. By the end of 2011, the Center will have more than 2,000 alumni throughout Kansas.

With so many Kansans gathering together for years to come at the new facility, Coen sees a time when significant developments and improvements in our state come as a result of these meetings.

"We face a myriad of challenges today in our state, and most are far too complex for one person or a small group of people to solve," he said. "Hopefully, by gathering more Kansans for these important discussions, the Foundation and the Center can use this new meeting space to host sessions that begin to find solutions that will benefit Kansans for generations to come."