Fit for Kansas Kids: Calling Communities to Action

2012 Grant Renewal Invitation

Quick links:
Renewal Grant Online Application Form | Download Grant Renewal Invitation

Please note: this is a grant renewal invitation for existing Fit for Kansas Kids collaboratives, not an open application or RFP.

The 2010 Fit for Kansas Kids initiative has been a learning experience for the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and the nine participating collaborative community projects. Through the grant program, each of the nine communities developed distinct approaches to improving physical activity and nutrition for young children. The nine collaboratives celebrated achievements, worked through problems, gathered data, and shared thoughts and experiences with the other projects and with outside experts through participation in a learning community.

The original Fit for Kansas Kids grants, which started in 2011, will end later this year. For 2012, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is inviting the communities to apply for one-time matching grants to support development of the next phase of collaborative work to prevent early childhood obesity.

The Fit for Kansas Kids Commitment: The original Request for Proposals asked for ideas that would help the community gain new capacity, new resources, or new approaches that could continue to serve the young children of the community and their families for years to come. In each program, sustainable changes have been achieved.

Collective Impact: Research reveals that successful collaborations often have common components including a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually-reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone organization. The most recent research also describes typical phases of development which mark successful collective impact.

Sustaining Action & Impact: Fit for Kansas Kids projects are now moving into a phase that promises to sustain action and impact. What might this look like for your community in 2013? How would the governance and infrastructure, the overall strategic plan, community involvement, and evaluation and improvement components of your collaborative be enhanced, changed, or scaled differently? Has the project built community support to help with financial needs?

Renewal Invitation

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is inviting existing Fit for Kansas Kids projects to apply for a one-time matching grant to support development of this next phase of collaborative work to prevent early childhood obesity. Projects that are positioned to take advantage of this opportunity will have:

1. demonstrated measurable success in achieving the stated project goals,
2. viable plans for continuing the collaboration and work with early childhood, and
3. local financial and in-kind resources to partially fund the 2013 program.

Grant amount and requirements:

The maximum grant is $30,000. This will be in the form of a matching grant of $2 (up to the maximum $30,000) for every $1 in cash or direct in-kind support (such as staff position or supplies paied by the current grant) committed to the program in 2013. Grants from other statewide health foundations may not be used as a match for Fit for Kansas Kids renewal grants. All match commitments must be secured by the starting date of the grant (January 1, 2013). Restrictions on the use of grant funds will be the same as for the current grant.

Grant details and dates

Grant duration: January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013

Note: there may be one meeting of all renewed projects during the grant period. Expenses for attending will be covered separately by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund was endowed by the Kansas West Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1986.  With the mission of healthy Kansans through cooperative and strategic philanthropy guided by Christian principles, the Health Ministry Fund awards grants totaling $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 each year.