Community Studios
While Kansas residents rarely get to talk to academics about real-world challenges, the ARISE project uses community studios to facilitate these types of conversations.
So far, we have hosted 13 studios across Kansas, with more than 160 participants!
Both familiar faces & new voices joined in these conversations, all eager to create a shared vision for Kansas. We focused on the vital infrastructure that supports our lives. It was thrilling to see several aha! moments, as many studio attendees shared knowledge, and a stewardship bond formed between each other and the researchers.
Thank you to all who participated in this important effort to help all Kansans thrive and be resilient to storms and other disasters.
2024 Studios and Reports
The first round of eight community studios occurred in early 2024. Roughly 85 Kansans from Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Kansas City, and Overland Park attended these events alongside 20 in-state scientists. These events explored how each community faces distinctive challenges. Local residents identified what matters most to them. They considered ways to build upon their current resources to strengthen their community. So, we began to understand community assets, needs, and goals to grow stronger—together. This understanding set the stage for the second round of studios.
Dr. Bergtold summarized the findings of each studio in a separate report. He said that these reports highlight the relative importance of various aspects of resilience. Each report also includes a map of the community’s capitals, showing how assets vary across communities. These findings are helpful for residents and researchers seeking to enhance community resilience.
Key takeaways from the reports:
- Kansas communities have different priorities and needs. Communities consistently considered aspects, such as “everyone has access to clean water, affordable energy, and transportation”, “everyone has access to the needed public services and resources”, and “reliable and hardened infrastructure (water, energy, and transportation”, of high importance for their communities.
- Each community has a rich array of resources and assets, as mapped out in the reports, that can be utilized to help enhance their resilience. For example, drinking water and wastewater were seen as strongly positively influencing community resilience in Johnson County, Ford County and Seward County. The level of influence of built capital, particularly water, energy and transportation infrastructures and related services, on community resilience varied across the communities.
Reach out to us—we are happy to share the reports.
2025 Studios and Reports
The second round of studios occurred in spring 2025 in Liberal, Dodge City and Kansas City. These conversations shifted from vision to action-oriented goals to reach a desired future, for things like safer roads and emergency services. SMART goals were crafted, aiming for actions that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Participants prioritized their needs and identified indicators that will show the progress made over time.
Stay tuned for the key takeaways of these reports.