Our History

From tragedy, a stronger future

The Shocker Neighborhood Coalition was birthed in May of 2015 through a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation to work with Fairmount Neighborhood Association in response to a tragedy in Fairmount Park. The original initiative was Led by Mark Glaser, the university’s Public Policy and Management Center and included an in-depth survey of Fairmount residents which successfully defined community concerns and the community’s dedication to addressing them. Then Community liaison Darryl Carrington worked alongside community members to develop an identity for the neighborhood to rally around.

As a result of this work, a greater understanding of the neighborhood was gained and the inter-sector economic development network tailored to the concerns of residents, called the Shocker Neighborhood Coalition. The three part series of reports can be found here.

While the focus of early reporting and work centered on Fairmount Neighborhood, there was always a plan for the coalition to strengthen both the identity of a larger geographic area and economic sustainability of the same.