Future Home of The rURAL vITALTY cENTER

The FSL seeks to acquire 350 acres to provide a transformative facility and resources through innovative facilities, collaboration and funding to support rural Kansas communities and provide equal opportunity for all.

 The Future Service Leaders,  RVC campus will support rural schools, communities, and families in east-central Kansas through funding opportunities and community partnerships to reduce barriers, promote evidence-based practices, and provide services that meet each community's self-identified needs and maximize outcomes. 

The FSL serves rural students, communities, and families through its strategic plan to promote prosperity,  resilience, and equality in rural communities. Our goal is to empower rural areas to create and develop  strong economies and healthy communities. The RVC will provide services and resources that guide and  support our vision to strengthen our rural communities. The RVC will connect the dots to neighboring  universities, churches, rural schools, home schools, senior living facilities, and organizations. Everyone is  welcome at the RVC. 

Our Strategy: 

We have worked hard to create an economic development strategy for our rural areas  that fits the needs of our local communities, families and schools. Our strategy is a multistep process that has required  assessing the current state of the region, identifying the value proposition, evaluating existing programs, and establishing partnerships for The Rural Vitality Center. Our strategy puts us in the position to prioritize specific initiatives, continue to prioritize specific needs for our communities, families and schools. Our board will work closely with each community to continue to meet the needs of our communities, families and schools.

Develop  A Sustainable Tourism infrastructure

Bringing in visitors is important to our growth—it draws in spending from outside the region to generate economic growth for our local communities, families and schools.  Whether it's exploring our unique educational and health and wellness experiences or getting soaking in the benefits of our cross-sector collaborations, the innovative infrastructure will be one of a kind.

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We have deliberately designed our education tourism facility to incorporate programs that involve leaders within our communities and businesses to strengthen support for our region. The  RVC programs will encourage the revitalization of our rural communities, offer an economic impact, and  increase equitable opportunities for rural communities, families, and schools. The RVC will also provide a data delivery model that policy makers can use to understand their region’s strengths and challenges relative to other regions and begin to focus on assets, or competitive advantage, and potential barriers to development.  

The 350 acre $56M (phase one) rural vitality center campus  will create a much needed rural-urban linkage that is important for social and economic development. Our partnerships with business leaders, schools, communities and organizations, provide a resourceful and progressive environment as well as fresh ways to capture and value the direct and rippling economic, social, and health benefits of rural communities. 

Rural Leaders and community members: The 350 acre property and facilities will be acquired through the FSL Foundation. No community members will be taxed for any reason for this project.  

How Do We Give Back To The Community

The Future Service Leaders Foundation will provide yearly grant opportunities to rural communities, families and schools.  A cost share also allows us to provide yearly funding that will flow back into our local communities and schools.

• Services that provides funding back into our partnered rural communities, families and schools.
• A state-of-the-art facility for Kansas communities, families and schools
• Technology and distance learning capabilities
• Cross-sector collaboration efforts and partnerships 
• Grant opportunities for rural communities and schools
• Supports  rural fundraising efforts
• Prioritized resources
• Mental health support resources

For more than a year, our FSL foundation has prepared for The Reimagine Rural campaign. A feasibility study indicated a phased approach, along with a clear vision would make The Reimagine Rural Campaign most successful. Following feasibility, the highly experienced architectural firm of Anderson Knight Architects. were selected to design a state of the art Rural Vitality Center. 

BHS Construction of Manhattan, Kansas will lead the way in our construction as they have worked with over 2000 projects and have a long history of being active in community and developing strong partnerships. We are excited to work with their incredible team and they help deliver a transformational facility. 

• The FSL- (phase one) is looking to acquire 350 acres of land for the construction of facilities. The site location has not been determined at this time but we are looking into three specific areas of focus for the future home of our facilities. Our facility is a rural vitality center that must support small rural communities with populations of less than 5000. 

The RVC campus style educational tourism environment will be spread-out over 350 acres, with innovative spaces that blend into the rolling hills. The architectural design incorporates a subtle but beautiful structure that bows to the beauty of what the flint hills of  Kansas has to offer.  This design will include a rural vitality center, a hillside amphitheater, hiking trails surrounded by nature and cattle, outdoor spaces (entry gardens, bridges, ponds, terraces and beautiful landscape). The design concept provides panoramic views of the hills to the north, south, east and west and the trails and spaces are full of nature including cattle that surround the facility in the surrounding pasture. These innovative spaces abound for experiential services and hub spaces that bridge the mental health services gap and education learning gaps in rural areas.

The Build-(phase one) $56M  90,000 sq ft Rural Vitality Center Campus Spaces for Instructional and Educational Experiences - 

• Rural Vitality Center- STEM, Simulation, Gamification, Scenario Based Learning, Interactive Experiences, staff offices, mental health navigation space, education space, hub offices for partnership opportunities with local  churches and more.
• A Culinary Kitchen- (within the RVC) (Events-experiences with church groups, 4-H groups- partnership opportunities with local tech colleges)
• Conference Center- (within the RVC)  part of the (seats 300- that can be separated into workshop spaces and used by local schools, business's and community events.
• Distance learning and experiential learning center-  (AI Capabilities- Green Screen- Distance learning Opportunities for rural schools to connect to experiences through connectivity. These Hub spaces will also be used for workforce development and upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
• CTE Hub center- - (manufacturing courses) Innovative spaces for expert Instructors to offer courses. These courses will be offered through partnerships. Students from around our state will be able to view, experience and even explore unique opportunities though this experience.
•  The EFarm- Animal Sanctuary Barn(animal hub spaces for experiences) Veterinarian Hub Space, Indoor Arena (animal therapy spaces) rural adventure space (for youth to play, dig up worms to fish, build, create) community gardens, nature trails, fishing docks. This space will be a collaboration space for Agriculture students and colleges to share unique experiences. 
• The Pasture Amphitheatre (2700 sq ft) (outdoor theatre in the hills. Great opportunity for churches, schools, community members.) The theatre sits beneath a hill overlooking the Flint Hills of Kansas.
• The Experiential Health and Wellness Center- this space includes an indoor/outdoor arena that includes hub office spaces, mental health navigation services, spaces  for experiences such as hippotherapy and nature therapy hub spaces.  This space will include Animal sanctuary spaces for the use of animal therapy and space for indoor and outdoor health and wellness experiences. ( this center will work in collaboration with existing mental health services.)

The construction schedule is set to take place late in 2023-24.  At this time, we are meeting with schools, communities and families to share our vision, feasibility study and other information to create awareness regarding the ECenter.  This process will allow us to answer questions, handle concerns and gather important feedback that will help determine the support needed to reach our sustainable development goals.