Why Partnership Is at the Heart of SENT’s Wraparound Model
Here is something we believe deeply at SENT Inc.
No single organization can meet every need.
Individual and Family needs are complex. One household might need food assistance, a safe place to call home, a doctor, therapy, and job training for a parent, all in the same season. No single organization can meet all of those needs.
SENT made a choice early on to create lasting community partnerships with organizations that can help us meet the needs of our neighbors. We make sure our neighbors only have to walk through one door which is SENT”s Family Resource Center door.
The Problem With a Million Doors
Think about what it takes to get help in most communities.
Food assistance is at one office. Therapy is across town. Housing help has a waiting list. Insurance help is a phone number with a long hold time. Each place has its own forms, its own rules, and its own line.
Now imagine doing all of that on the bus. With kids. While working.
Research backs up what our neighbors already know: this system is exhausting. A 2025 report prepared for the U.S. Administration for Children and Families found that when programs operate in silos, with different rules and separate applications, families carry the burden of navigating all of it. The report found that coordination between programs reduces those barriers and improves outcomes.¹
In plain words: when community organizations partner together, families do better.
The Number That Tells the Story
Here is our favorite partnership stat from 2025.
SENT’s Neighbor Advocates coordinated 1,047 referrals last year. Of those, 702 connected neighbors to services inside SENT. The other 345 connected neighbors to outside partners.²
Read that again. One out of every three referrals sent someone to a partner, not to us.
Food: From Regional Farms to Neighborhood Tables
The Southside Filling Station is often the first door neighbors walk through. Partners help keep it stocked with nutritious food options and fresh produce.
In October 2025, SENT announced a partnership with the Kansas City Food Hub, which now delivers fresh, locally sourced produce to SENT every week, free of delivery charge.³ That partnership connects regional farmers directly to our neighborhood, so families have consistent access to fruits and vegetables all year long.
And when a family at the pantry is ready for more support, tools like mRelief help our Neighbor Advocates screen for SNAP eligibility on the spot, while the IRIS referral platform connects them to partners across the community.²
Health and Wellness: One Building, Many Experts
Walk into the Avondale East Care Center and you will find more than SENT. You will find partners offering their services right alongside ours:
- Berry Street Nutrition Therapy. Registered dietitians who help people manage diabetes, heart health, and more. Many services are covered by insurance at little to no cost.
- Pediatric Connections. Trauma-informed occupational therapy that helps children succeed at home, at school, and in the community.
- Astra Mental Health & Recovery: A telehealth station where clients can complete medication check-in appointments without traveling across town.
- Dr. Tangpricha, Chiropractic and Pain Management. Adjustments are $50 and billable to insurance. For neighbors without insurance, SENT covers $15 of the cost, bringing it down to $35. The partner brings the expertise. SENT helps remove the cost barrier and provides a local place to receive care.
- Therapeutic Massage. Affordable massage therapy, including prenatal massage in SENT’s space.
- Cairn Health. Reduced cost prescriptions, diabetic supplies, and vision care plus free over-the-counter medicine.
- Aimee Healthcare. Online doctor visits for $9 with a $5 monthly membership. No insurance needed.
- Community Resource Council. Utility assistance, water assistance, and free tax preparation with AARP during tax season.
- Community Action and Fellowship Hi-Crest. Bringing additional services and community programming into the building.
Substance use disorder prevention work is powered by partners. DCCCA grant funding supports peer navigation and stocks wellness kits in the 24/7 Save-A-Life Station. Positive Connections provides sexual health resources. The VA contributed 1,000 gun locks for suicide and injury prevention. And Topeka Metro and Fellowship Hi-Crest’s People Mover help neighbors actually get to their appointments.⁵
Housing: Built Together, From the Ground Up
You cannot build a neighborhood alone. Every home SENT builds or restores involves multiple partners.
SENT works with the Topeka Housing Authority and the City of Topeka, and serves as a certified Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO), to help families find and keep quality housing.⁶ The Fremont Hill Initiative, a 29-acre development bringing mixed-income housing and community amenities to the neighborhood, was launched in partnership with the Topeka Housing Authority and construction developers.⁶
The New Heights development will bring 63 single-family homes and townhomes to Southeast Topeka in partnership with many partners.⁷ The 176-unit Johnson-Betts Meadows development became possible through Low-Income Housing Tax Credit financing, a tool that only works when nonprofits, government, and investors team up.²
And it goes beyond developers. Architects design the homes. Local suppliers and home improvement partners help stretch every renovation dollar in programs like Curb Appeal and our Beat the Heat summer program. Contractors train and work alongside participants in our skilled trades workforce pathway, so neighbors learn real construction skills while the neighborhood itself gets stronger.
Housing is the clearest picture of what we mean: SENT does not swing every hammer. We bring the partners together and keep the neighborhood at the center.
Education: Schools Opened Their Doors, and Partners Walked In
Campus Connections only works because schools said yes. SENT staff and licensed practitioners serve inside Ross Elementary, Eisenhower Middle School, Highland Park High School, and Avondale Academy, working alongside teachers and administrators every day.² We also partner with the Topeka Center for Peace and Justice to support justice-involved youth through a healing-focused program.⁸
And when Campus Connections expanded into its comprehensive after-school program, it was powered by a team of programming partners, including the One Heart Project for mentorship, 4-H Youth Development through K-State Research and Extension, arts partners leading theater and creative expression, Work In Process bringing live music-based mental health programming, and coding classes led by an SRO officer who volunteers his skills.
For older youth, SENT partnered with True to Life Ministries to launch Level Up, a success coaching program that helps disconnected young people ages 16 to 25 step into adulthood with confidence and a plan.⁹
For adults, we partnered with Washburn University Institute of Technology to bring learning directly to our neighborhood. We offer GED classes through the Kansas Adult Basic Education Program; when completed, students receive a Kansas State High School Diploma. Instructors lead the classes right here in Hi-Crest, removing the transportation barrier that keeps so many adults from finishing what they started.
Workforce: Four Partners Said Yes
Our Community Health Worker pathway exists because four partners came to the table: the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Topeka Correctional Facility, Kansas Correctional Industries, and Health Legacy and Restorative Pathways. Together, we are helping women train for healthcare careers before reentry, so they walk out with a future already taking shape.
Our skilled trades pathway connects participants to real construction work through partnering contractors and SENT’s own housing projects. Training, housing, and neighborhood improvement, all feeding each other.
The Research Says This Model Works
SENT’s Family Resource Center follows a model that has been studied across the country. And the results are strong.
Casey Family Programs, the nation’s largest operating foundation focused on child and family well-being, published a research brief on family resource centers in 2024. One of the defining elements of an effective center, according to the brief, is sustaining “strong partnerships with a variety of other community-based providers.”¹⁰ Partnership is not a bonus feature. It is a best practice.
The outcomes are measurable:
- Communities with family resource centers in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania showed significantly lower rates of child maltreatment investigations.¹⁰
- Areas served by family resource centers in Orange County, California had lower rates of referrals to child protective services than comparison areas.¹⁰
And the return on investment is remarkable:
- In Alabama, every $1 invested in family resource centers returned $4.70 in immediate and long-term financial benefits.¹⁰
- In Teller County, Colorado, the county saved $2.92 for every dollar invested, a 292 percent return.¹⁰
- In Orange County, California, a study of one center found $3.65 saved for every dollar invested, an estimated savings of over $1.84 million.¹⁰
Why such big returns? Because prevention is cheaper than crisis. When families get support early, in one trusted place, fewer emergencies happen later. Fewer evictions. Fewer hospital visits. Fewer children entering the system. The savings are real, but the human impact is bigger than any dollar figure.
What This Means for a Real Family
Picture a mom who comes to the Southside Filling Station for groceries grown by Kansas farmers and delivered through the Kansas City Food Hub.
While she is there, a Neighbor Advocate learns she has been putting off a health question because she has no insurance. So the advocate connects her with Thrive Allen County to check her insurance options, and with Cairn Health for an affordable prescription in the meantime. Her son has been struggling at school, so the advocate mentions Pediatric Connections, right there in the same building, and checks in with his teacher through Campus Connections. Her husband wants to finish his diploma, so they learn about the GED classes offered with Washburn University Institute of Technology. And in the spring, the whole family comes back for free tax prep through the Community Resource Council.
Count the partners in that story. Six, at least. But the family only had to build one relationship, walk through one door, and tell their story one time.
That is the wraparound model. SENT did not provide all of those services. SENT made sure they were connected.
Excellence Already Exists. We Just Bring It Together.
There is a temptation in nonprofit work to build everything yourself. To put your name on every program. To reinvent wheels that are already rolling.
We choose a different way.
Topeka already has excellent farmers, dietitians, therapists, builders, educators, and community organizations. Our job is not to replace them. Our job is to bring that excellence close to the neighbors who need it, remove the barriers in between, and walk with people as they connect.
Because transformation is not a solo act. It is a team sport.
We don’t do this work alone.
Want to see it for yourself? Visit the SENT Family Resource Center at the Avondale East Care Center, 455 SE Golf Park Blvd., Topeka, KS 66605. Learn more at senttopeka.com/approach/communityhealthwellness/family-resource-center/ or call (785) 783-2535.
Interested in partnering with SENT? We are always looking for organizations already providing excellence. Start the conversation at senttopeka.com/partner-with-us/.
Works Cited
Casey Family Programs. “What Do We Know About Family Resource Centers?” Issue brief. Seattle, WA: Casey Family Programs, July 2024. https://www.casey.org/family-resource-centers/.
KSNT News. “SENT Inc. Building Homes, Affordable Housing Units in Topeka.” March 3, 2025. https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/sent-inc-building-homes-affordable-housing-units-in-topeka/.
SENT Inc. 2025 Annual Report. Topeka, KS: SENT Inc., 2025.
SENT Inc. 2025 Substance Use Disorder Services Year-End Report. Topeka, KS: SENT Inc., 2025.
SENT Inc. 2026 Strategic Plan. Topeka, KS: SENT Inc., 2026.
SENT Inc. “PRESS RELEASE: SENT, Inc. and Topeka Doula Project Partner to Expand Maternal Health Support in Southeast Topeka.” May 6, 2025. https://senttopeka.com/2025/05/06/press-release-sent-inc-and-topeka-doula-project-partner-to-expand-maternal-health-support-in-southeast-topeka/.
SENT Inc. “PRESS RELEASE: SENT and Topeka Center for Peace and Justice Partner to Support Justice-Involved Youth Through Healing-Focused Program.” May 21, 2025. https://senttopeka.com/2025/05/21/press-release-sent-and-topeka-center-for-peace-and-justice-partner-to-support-justice-involved-youth-through-healing-focused-program/.
SENT Inc. “PRESS RELEASE: SENT Inc. and True to Life Ministries Launch Transformative Partnership to Empower Disconnected Youth in Topeka.” July 22, 2025. https://senttopeka.com/2025/07/22/press-release-sent-inc-and-true-to-life-ministries-launch-transformative-partnership-to-empower-disconnected-youth-in-topeka/.
SENT Inc. “PRESS RELEASE: SENT Inc. and Kansas City Food Hub Partner to Strengthen Food Access and Community Health in Southeast Topeka.” October 22, 2025. https://senttopeka.com/2025/10/22/press-release-sent-inc-and-kansas-city-food-hub-partner-to-strengthen-food-access-and-community-health-in-southeast-topeka/.
Stepleton, Kate, Semhar Gebrekristos, Lisa Rau, Carly Morrison, Rachel Richman, and Gretchen Kirby. Supporting Coordinated Benefits Delivery to Foster Whole-Family Approaches: Developing and Piloting a Toolkit for State and Local Agencies. Report submitted to the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Alexandria, VA: MEF Associates, October 2025.
Notes:
- Stepleton et al., Supporting Coordinated Benefits Delivery, 2.
- SENT Inc., 2025 Annual Report.
- SENT Inc., “Kansas City Food Hub” press release.
- SENT Inc., “Topeka Doula Project” press release; KSNT News coverage of the KDHE grant announcement, July 29, 2025.
- SENT Inc., 2025 Substance Use Disorder Services Year-End Report.
- SENT Inc., 2026 Strategic Plan.
- KSNT News, “SENT Inc. Building Homes.”
- SENT Inc., “Topeka Center for Peace and Justice” press release.
- SENT Inc., “True to Life Ministries” press release.
- Casey Family Programs, “What Do We Know About Family Resource Centers?”