Philanthropy Today
Philanthropy Today
Sunflower Children’s Collective on the GMCF Community Hour Show Episode - 260
We share how the Sunflower Children’s Collective supports kids facing trauma, instability, and court involvement across Riley, Geary, and Pottawatomie counties, and why healing requires steady relationships and time. With grant dollars shrinking, we introduce Champions of Hope, a two-week, captain-led fundraising push that turns creative micro-events into counseling and advocacy.
• mission and role of the Sunflower Children’s Collective
• scale of need across the region serving 500+ children
• impacts of instability on learning, trust and development
• trauma-informed counseling for PTSD, anxiety and attachment
• partnership with Andrews and Associates for on-site care
• funding gaps from lost grants and planning ahead
• Champions of Hope two-week fundraising window
• examples of easy-to-host, high-impact events
• how neighbors can spot concerns and call for guidance
• misconceptions about quick fixes and timelines for healing
Champions Of Hope: Become A Captain Or Start A Team Between February 14–28. Call 785-205-2970. Celebration On March 12 At The K-State Alumni Center. More Info At Sunflower Children’s Collective.com
Philanthropy today is brought to you by the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. In this episode, we feature a recently broadcast segment of the GMCF Community Hour, as heard on News Radio KMAN. We return on the GMCF Community Hour here on News Radio KMAN. John Poulson is our next guest. He is the development director for the Sunflower Children's Collective. And John, welcome to your first time on the show. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Tell me about your role there. My role is to help share with the public, make them aware of what's going on at the Sunflower Children's Collective, and also to help with raising funds to meet some of the needs that we have with this group. How did you get started in this? Basically, um through some folks there that work, some employees, I was um offered the opportunity to help them. Um I have done some development work before and from different organizations. And um, so I had the opportunity to work with uh Sunflower and to share the mission of the um the program uh to the public and to donors and to thank Stuart, do a lot of stewardship things, but also looking at new opportunities to um share the program and to raise funds. I think everybody's looking for something new, aren't they? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Before we got started, we talked about, you know, how difficult it is to find a something unique and be something that's effective and rewarding. Right. Rewarding from several different perspectives. Obviously, you know, when you're in the fundraising world, you want it to be financially rewarding. Right. Um, there's just so many things, you know. Everybody has fundraisers. We're blessed in this town. We've got so many people who love to give, that love to participate, that love to volunteer. Right. You know, and I feel like we're unique in that way. Maybe that's just my perspective. Yeah. Yeah. But when you have an organization that deals specifically with kids and kids who are in a troubled situation, correct. That really tends to pull some heartstrings. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Exactly. And that's what we do. We work with children who are uh who are in very difficult situations in their lives. And uh especially they face things uh with trauma and family issues and problems. Um, and and that's where we come in to try to help these kids. Um and in fact, last year, Dave, we saw over 500 children, uh, not just in the Manhattan area, but all over um the Riley County, um, Geary County, um, Pottawatomie County. We meet a lot of families and kids trying to help them uh to get their lives back in order. So that's what we try to do.
SPEAKER_01:You know, you got a great story to tell because you're making an impact on kids. Right. A positive impact on kids and families because the work is not just about the kids, but it's also making sure that the families have that participation. Right. Because, you know, I think most of us are, you know, when I think primarily about Sunflower Children's Collective, and it's more than what CASA was. Correct. And so now you become more of a group effort. Correct. And you're attacking the whole as opposed to just trying to help the child in in a difficult situation. And it's you know, of all the volunteer things that are available out there for people to do, it's got to be one of the most challenging to be a CASA volunteer.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, exactly. Exactly. Because you have so much going on that's changing with these kids a lot and the families. Um you've got kids who um uh I I've seen it several times because I'm a substitute teacher um in the middle school, and I've seen kids moving uh not just out of the city, but they move from one home to another, or they're moving from different areas, and that put I can see the stress on the kids because now moving again to another place, or they're moving from father to mother, or they or they have uh our new foster home. And so it puts so much stress on them that it it hurts them developmentally. Um it certainly with relationships with other adults or even with their own peers, it puts a stress on them.
SPEAKER_01:I think a lot of people don't realize the transient nature of many of these young people's lives and how oh my goodness, that's just gotta be challenging. It is. And you know, and obviously, you know, you have scenarios where things aren't good. Right, right. Wherever they may be. It may be with a parent, it may be with any number of things that uh a kid is troubled. Right. Goodness gracious. Well, let's talk a bit about um, you know, the the collective in its entirety and in 2026 what the future what the future holds. And there's obviously, you know, we talked with Carla about this in the previous segment about uh some financial uncertainty and grant monies, whether they are available to you or not, and you don't know what that future is. So how do you plan for that?
SPEAKER_00:Well, one of the things that we're trying to do, Dave, is to is to look at other ways to be able to raise money. Um, because obviously we're we're another organization that is is losing some grant money that we have been using for the past several years. And so uh we're looking at an opportunity to raise funds by having the public join us in a special project that we have. And this project was really not novel, it's nothing new. This was started by an organization in Topeka called Lighthouse. And Lighthouse had this idea to raise funds through getting the public to help form teams. And they have captains and have teams to raise support for Lighthouse. And they did it in such a unique way that this is their fourth year into it now. And they do it by um a team of people, maybe two guys, two uh two women, uh, men and women, maybe a married couple, will want to host or do something special to raise funds. For example, uh there was a man um in Topeka that had a monthly poker party, and he got all his buddies together and said, for one month, the the money that we'd play in for our poker is going to go to lighthouse. Another guy um held a bourbon tasting party with his buddies, and they they bought the bourbon and everything, and that all that went to the um the lighthouse. And then two women had a movie trivia night, and it was during the Academy Awards, you know, or something like that, where they were having fun with that as well, but they were raising funds through it. And then one man had a dunk tank, and he charged people to, and then he got his buddies to sit on the chair, and they raise money for. So this is called this is what Lighthouse uses is. So we've borrowed their idea and we've called it champions of hope. And so we're looking for captains, people who are willing to help come up with an idea that they would like to do to help raise money. Now, here's the kicker with it it's only for two weeks, it's only a two-week time frame, a two week time frame frame to do all of these events, yep. You know, in that time period. Or they could they can do it if they want to do it in early February, they could, but it we really would like them to do it between February 14th and the 28th, and then it's over. That's all it is. And then we're gonna have a celebration on March 12th over at the K-State Alumni Center to celebrate the the you know the captains and the teams and what they've done. And Topeka said they've grown every year with this, you know, for more. They've raised more money, they've had to raise more teams to it. So that's what we're gonna do this year. It's called Champions of Hope. And if your listeners are interested and would like to consider wanting to be a captain and joining us, um, it's very simple. All they can have to do is call um Sunflower at 785-205-2970, and we'll get them the information they need. And then in early December, we're going to have a captain's meeting. So just kind of review and share ideas and thoughts like that.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm intrigued. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. My mind is rolling here because uh there's a lot of things I do, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I know.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah. Goodness gracious. It's kind of fun. We'll have to talk. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk a bit about uh, you know, the there's the financial aspect, you know, we're all doing fundraising. We're all, you know, and and there's a constant need. You know, Girl Green Match Day is obviously a big day. And uh, you know, every organization has events that they're doing. Right. Um let's talk a bit about some of the hardships that some of these kids are being faced with. And you know, and you know, the financial aspect of what you do as an organization, especially in light of losing some grant dollars, which is frustrating. Everybody's everybody's dealing with that. And so it's going to be incumbent upon us as members of the community to to really kind of make sure that these efforts can continue because it's impactful. Right. You got kids that have been abused, neglected.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:They're they're they're horror stories. Yeah. And we probably have all heard the horror stories because you're helping them. Right. How how can people help try to get them their lives back on track?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think I think one thing that they could do um if if they sense that there are problems uh that they see, whether it's across the street with a child or uh people in school or things like that, is they can certainly call Sunflower, okay, and ask. Um, and and we can help them get with advice and how to counsel and to work with that. Um, but most of it is we work with with people, with kids who have through the courts, oftentimes, um, and and help them uh with counseling, providing opportunities to be able to meet with other people to try to help these kids through um the issues that they're going through. A lot of our emotional or or psychological traumas, anything from anxiety to depression to PTSD, attachment disorders, trust issues. These are the things that we look at and work with, these kind of things. Uh there are developmental delays that disrupt uh trauma that can disrupt uh brain development, leading to learning challenges. These are all these kind of issues that we face with kids. And then because of it, there's a lot of instability, which we've already talked about. Um but these are things that that we face and we work with every day. And um and I know that the public sees it oftentimes, um, and um just knowing that we're available to help if if they would need it.
SPEAKER_01:Great. We have limited amount of time. Sure. Misconceptions about Sunflower Children's Collective that uh you wanted to try to clear up today.
SPEAKER_00:Um I I think one of the misconceptions um that that people think um that sometimes the things that we do is very quick to re to change. You know, we have the the medicine that can handle this real fast. And it takes a long a lot of times it takes a long time. It's not an easy fix. It is not, and so we we we work with that. Second, we work, like I said before, we work with many different, not just Manhattan uh children, we work with children throughout the area. We're a regional area, not just uh in the city of Manhattan. So we we see a lot of people, and obviously if you're seeing over 500 kids, that's a lot of kids. 500? Over 500 kids last year. Oh my goodness. Yeah, over 500. And you know, and and one of the one of the new things that by the way that we've done is we've been able to um use Andrews and Associates. Um, and we actually have in our offices here um three uh counselors that come in from Ant Andrew Andrews and Associates to help um work with kids individually. And so that's a new thing that we've done as well. John, we're out of time. Great. This has been terrific. Champions of Hope. Right, Champions of Hope.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and do you have some information about that on the website? Yep, we sure do. Okay, that website is Sunflower Children's Collective.com. Correct. Delight to have you in. Thanks for the work that you're doing on behalf of the collective and and best wishes to you and happy holidays. Yes, happy Thanksgiving to you. Yes, thank you. All right, the GMCF community hour is continuing after the break. Jaina Yukurzenko is coming in to talk about things that are happening in the community, and we got a lot. We got a lot here on News Radio KM again.