Empowering communities

Local community groups formerly working under the Kansas PRIDE umbrella are now a part of the Kansas Community Empowerment (KCE) program, administered by the Kansas Department of Commerce. State officials were in Allen County Wednesday to discuss ways to continue, and even improve, those programs.

August 7, 2025 - 2:32 PM

Donna Houser, of the Iola Community Involvement Task Force/PRIDE Committee, from left, speaks at a gathering with Kansas Department of Commerce representatives Miranda Carpenter and Kaitlynn Kolterman. The Department of Commerce has assumed responsibility of the Kansas Community Empowerment Program, formerly Kansas PRIDE. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

For more than 50 years, communities within what had been the Kansas PRIDE network have led volunteer efforts to make their hometowns better places to live.

And while the organization has a new moniker and leadership structure, those goals remain unchanged, Miranda Carpenter said in Allen County Wednesday.

Carpenter, representing the Kansas Department of Commerce, paid visits to LaHarpe, Iola and Humboldt to gather information and share what she could about the Kansas Community Empowerment (KCE) program.

The Department of Commerce assumed administration of KCE on July 1, taking the baton from Kansas State University’s Department of Research and Extension.

“There’s still lots to do and figuring out what it feels like,” Carpenter said at LaHarpe.

Part of that includes learning about what the PRIDE communities have been up to, learning about their strengths and challenges, and answering what questions she could.

“Really, it’s just to get your feedback, to learn from you guys,” she said.

By Sept. 8, the Department of Commerce will have conducted 90 visits in 90 days.

“We have the opportunity to move things and change things around so it works the best for each community,” said Carpenter.

Miranda Carpenter, center, and Kaitlynn Koltermann, to her right, visit with LaHarpe PRIDE members Wednesday. Photo by Richard Luken / Iola Register

LOCAL representatives shared their stories, how their chapters were formed, and rattled a list of their accomplishments, from the Iola Community Involvement Task Force/PRIDE group’s successful downtown beautification ventures, from painting storefronts and Riverside Park’s WPA structures to its current focus of getting a splash park built at Meadowbrook Park.

In LaHarpe, members spoke about their annual fall cleanup days and building a zip line at the city park in 2014.

Challenges in both communities were similar. They’ve struggled at times to attract new, and younger, volunteers to be involved in their various efforts.

LaHarpe PRIDE member Harry Lee Jr. also touched on other needs within the community, such as a lack of affordable, quality housing and a dearth of local businesses.