"Helping strategies, if indeed they are to be ultimately helpful, demand careful examination of long-term implications. There is no guarantee that unexamined charity will have a redemptive outcome simply because it ‘seems right’ or feels good to the giver."
- Robert D. Lupton, Charity Detox
SENT Is Not the Answer: Improving Trust In Mainstream Financial Institutions in Under-Resourced Communities
So often in the nonprofit world, we enter spaces with deep care and genuine concern for our friends and neighbors. We listen to stories about barriers that stand in the […]
Where Perfect Gets in the Way of Access and Equity
There is a quiet tension that shows up often in nonprofit and community development work, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods. It usually starts with deep care. Those of us who walk […]
Are We Being Muted or Are We Choosing to Remain Silent?
Are we being muted, or are we choosing to remain silent—and what are we willing to do once we know the answer? That question matters, especially when we look honestly […]
2025 America’s Health Rankings — Kansas (#27) vs New Hampshire (#1)
How Hi-Crest Helps Move Kansas from #27 Toward #1 in Health Kansas’s health ranking is not determined in the abstract. It is the sum of what happens in real neighborhoods, […]
Why Food Security Is the Starting Point: How The Southside Filling Station Powers SENT’s Wraparound Model
At SENT, we don’t believe food security is the finish line. We believe it is the front door. For many neighbors, the Southside Filling Station is the first place they […]
Modeling Our Way Toward Health
At the beginning of 2025, I sat down with the newly released America’s Health Rankings and felt a genuine sense of encouragement. Kansas had moved from #29 to #28 in […]
Why Hi-Crest Is Not the Exception
Recently, the work of SENT in the Hi-Crest neighborhood was recognized by the Kansas Department of Commerce through the Community Empowerment Program with its highest designation, Community of Excellence. We […]
📢 SENT Inc. Newsletter: Does Mixed-Income Housing Displace Residents?
A Thoughtful Look at Research and Our Practice This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it […]
Does Mixed-Income Housing Displace Residents?
A Thoughtful Look at Research and Our Practice This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it […]
The Crisis We Don’t Want to See, and the Hope We Cannot Ignore
I struggle with the tension. In Topeka and in communities like ours across the country, we are caught between two competing realities. The first is the one splashed across headlines: […]
More Homes, More Stability: Why SENT Is Using Manufactured and Panelized Housing in 2026
In almost every community conversation about housing, someone eventually says some version of: “We need affordable housing, but we don’t want those kinds of homes.” I understand where that fear […]
A Stable Home Is One of the Strongest Investments a Community Can Make
At SENT, we often say that housing is not just shelter. It is health infrastructure. It is education infrastructure. It is economic infrastructure. Johnson-Betts Meadows was designed with this belief […]
Does Mixed-Income Housing Displace Residents? A Thoughtful Look at Research and Our Practice
This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it makes sense to ask whether new housing, even […]
📢 SENT Inc. Newsletter: How Oh Snap! Helped Feed Shawnee County This Fall
As we step into December, we’re reflecting with deep gratitude on a season marked by extraordinary collaboration and community care. When SNAP benefits were temporarily suspended this fall, thousands of […]
PRESS RELEASE: SENT Inc. Announces New Teacher Housing Stability and Retention Initiative
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SENT Inc. Announces New Teacher Housing Stability and Retention Initiative to Strengthen Schools, Support Educators, and Build Healthier Neighborhoods Topeka, KS — [January 2026] — SENT Inc. […]
Prevention Starts Long Before a Crisis
How SENT Is Building Stronger Pathways for Youth, Families, and Community Health Prevention is often misunderstood. It’s not just about saying “don’t.” It’s not about waiting for warning signs to […]
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