With all the negativity and criticism hoisted onto American health care, you’d think the health care system is undermining America’s quality of life rather than enhancing it.
While we can argue whether that is true or not, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) haven’t waited around for the debate. They’re proactively busy serving the state—748 grants/projects. Their efforts truly augment the average Kansan’s life rather than compromise it.
“We started to think about how can we partner and engage with health coalitions on a holistic community grant that would really be a long-term partnership that can improve health outcomes,” Virginia Barnes, director of Blue Health Initiatives at BCBSKS said.
Specifically, the BCBSKS Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grants have benefited Lyon County in numerous ways. BCBSKS has partnered with the Healthier Lyon County Coalition to provide funding to many projects that have had a positive impact on residents of the county.
“So one of our big and most recognizable projects has been the Lyon County Fairgrounds Trail,” said Daphne Mertens, United Way of the Flint Hills executive director. “That is a project that has been discussed for more than a decade in our community, but we just didn't know where we would get the money to be able to do that.”
BCBSKS grant funding answered the call.
For the Fairgrounds Trail, the United Way tabbed the City of Emporia’s Multi-Use Path Planning Board to be a kind of facilitator for the undertaking. Other partners came on board, too, contributing funding in addition to in-kind donations.
“The great thing about that trail and where it is, it allows for accessibility for a lot of our community members,” Mertens said. “If you drive by that trail on any given day, especially a nice day, a lot of people are out walking on it. You'll see little kids learning how to ride their bike, or safely riding on a scooter in a place where they don't have to worry about vehicles or traffic.”
Path to visibility
One of the compelling accounts of how the trail has made a difference in the lives of people pertains to a senior couple who reside in a sidewalkless neighborhood by the fairgrounds. Limited mobility has prevented them from moving about in an area devoid of sidewalk infrastructure and safe spaces to walk. The elderly couple was seldom seen due to the situation. The Fairgrounds Trail has changed that. Now, several neighbors have become acquainted with the couple who can navigate the trail, which is equipped with handicapped ramps on 9th Avenue.“They can safely use their walker or wheelchair on our trail because it's a smooth, flat surface, where they're free from traffic and have some separation from the road there,” Mertens said.
The BCBSKS Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grants began in 2016 to improve community health through supporting initiatives that target preventable chronic conditions, e.g., physical activity, nutrition, commercial tobacco control, and added behavioral health. Barnes said the adverse health outcomes and costs associated with persistent conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity can be avoided by establishing a healthy community environment through coalitions.
“So that's the impetus of the grant,” Barnes said. “Then we work with those health coalitions at a large community level and build it around identifying the segments to engage with the health coalition. Lyon County has been with us since 2017. It’s a long-term partnership and it's really been amazing to see the different ways they've been able to engage across the community.”
Coalition
The Healthier Lyon County Coalition is a large area nonprofit that encompasses a network of community-based organizations whose aim is to ameliorate the health of county residents. Mertens said that the attainment of grant funding through the BCBSKS Pathways to a Healthy Kansas has changed the conversation about health in the community and the considerations relating to the viability and sustainability of local health initiatives.
The grants have provided resource sustenance to coalition health pathways and projects peripherally or directly. Food reclamation is an example. The Abundant Harvest Food Kitchen received $20,000 for a much-needed truck, while funds have also been allocated to support Good Samaritan legislation about food donor liability.
Strong City’s C4 Food Pantry recently received a $100,000 grant from BCBSKS Pathways to a Healthy Kansas. The grants will help C4 expand its service offerings as it implements the goals of the nonprofit’s board.
“The Pathways grant gives us a little bit more support so we can take off on the things that they (the board) had already envisioned for Chase County,” Deb Andres, the Kanas State University Extension agent for family and community wellness in the Flint Hills District, told the Gazette earlier this year.
C4 will use the money for the food pantry, food reclamation, substance-use prevention in schools, multimodal transportation, recreational trails, community resilience, and behavioral health.
The Pathways to a Healthier Kansas grant has bridged funding for transportation and trail projects overseen by the City of Emporia. The funding matched a Kansas Department of Transportation grant.
By: Chris Adams
Posted on: May 16, 2025