Kansas Future Fellows
Challenge
The lives of Kansans are rapidly evolving—economically, socially, technologically, culturally—yet human service programs often struggle to adapt fast enough. This fact challenges the ability of state leaders to ensure that every child thrives. Kansas Future Fellows was designed in partnership with the Kansas Children's Cabinet & Trust to make certain Kansas is an exceptional place to do business and raise a family by developing a network of ambassadors thinking more critically about the future and more creatively about how to meet families' needs today.
Solution
Openfields helped the Center for Public Partnerships & Research at the University of Kansas design and facilitate a year-long cohort of diverse social impact leaders from the around the state of Kansas, representing fields ranging from public health and education to economic development, faith communities, and early childhood development. Openfields facilitated a series of Innovation Labs focused on Foresight, Systems Leadership, and Storytelling as a strategy for leading community change. The Fellowship culminated in the inaugural Kansas Future Forum, host at the Kansas Health Insitute in Topeka in June 2022.
The inaugural Future Fellows featured learning experiences with:
- Jake Dunagan from Institute from the Future
- Angela Hanson from the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation
- David Bornstein from the New York Times and Solutions Journalism Network
And included:
- Collaborative trends mapping
- Developing a range of impact scenarios to explore how current trends may affect the future of Kansas families
- Small group innovation sessions to rethink current social systems
Featured in the news:
Our work with Openfields has helped us see the limits in our own thinking and begin to generate ideas and alternatives to challenge and transform the status quo.
Dr. Jackie Counts
Director of the Center for Public Partnerships & Research at the University of Kansas
Find us in DC, Greenville, and Asheville
