KFMC Health Improvement Partners Honors City of Lawrence Homeless Response Team with 2025 Health Equity Innovation Award

KFMC Health Improvement Partners (KFMC) proudly presented the 2025 Health Equity Innovation Award to the City of Lawrence Homeless Response Team during the Kansas Health Impact Conference held in Manhattan, Kansas on October 23, 2025. This annual event brings together health equity leaders and advocates working to advance fairness and optimal health outcomes for all Kansans.

The Health Equity Innovation Award recognizes organizations or individuals who have developed and implemented inventive strategies to reduce health disparities and promote equity in their communities. These innovations may include technology-based solutions, culturally tailored interventions, collaborative partnerships, and more.

The City of Lawrence Homeless Response Team (HRT) was honored for its groundbreaking, field-based approach to serving unsheltered individuals—one of the most marginalized populations in the region. Through mobile outreach, HRT delivers integrated medical care, mental health services, substance use assessments, harm reduction, and housing navigation directly to people living outside. In just one year, this model led to a 63% reduction in unsheltered homelessness, expanded access to overdose prevention, and closed critical gaps for those least likely to seek or receive care.

HRT’s mobile services are multilingual, pet-inclusive, and do not require identification, insurance, or sobriety—removing common barriers to care. The team includes peer specialists with lived experience, a housing specialist, a substance use clinician, and mental health outreach staff. Their work is supported by a coalition of partners including:

Artists Helping the Homeless
Lawrence Community Shelter
Mirror, Inc.
Homeless Resource Center
City of Lawrence Police Department
Douglas County Government
Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health
RADAC (Regional Alcohol and Drug Assessment Center)

The team’s efforts are grounded in evidence-based practices such as the Housing First model and the Housing-Focused Street Outreach Framework. Notable outcomes include reduced emergency room visits, increased housing placements, and the deployment of three Narcan vending machines serving hundreds of doses.

“Receiving the Health Equity Innovation Award is deeply meaningful to the Homeless Response Team. It represents what our work in Lawrence/Douglas County is all about—meeting people where they are. When people experiencing homelessness begin to trust again, that’s when healing begins,” said Misty Bosch-Hastings, Director, Homeless Solutions Division, City of Lawrence. “This award belongs to every outreach worker, medical provider, mental health provider, and substance use provider on the Homeless Response Team who was brave enough to trust a new and innovative process, one that moves care beyond walls and into the places where it’s needed most.”

In the third year since its inception, nominees for the award are evaluated by an independent panel of judges from sectors affected by health disparities and inequities. This year’s other nominees included:

Decatur Health: Integrating Mental Health in Rural Primary Care
MEMSA and KEMSA: Mobile Integrated Healthcare for Rural Equity
Nemaha Valley Community Hospital: Spanish Language Access and Patient Engagement for Hispanic Populations
RISE Cowley: Collaborative Systems Change for Rural Health Equity in Cowley County
TECHS EMS: Rural EMS Innovation for Equitable Emergency Response
Upside: Housing as Healthcare

“Each of this year’s Health Equity Innovation Award nominees demonstrated remarkable dedication to advancing health equity in their communities, bringing forward compelling, community-rooted solutions,” said Sarah Irsik-Good, MHA, president and CEO of KFMC. “Lawrence’s Homeless Response Team stood out for its deeply integrated, street-based model that bridges critical gaps in behavioral health and emergency care. Their model is a powerful example of how compassion, innovation, and collaboration can drive scalable and sustainable solutions rooted in dignity and inclusion.”

KFMC would also like to give a special thanks to the panel of judges, each highly qualified and instrumental in choosing this year’s Health Equity Innovation Award recipient:

Lisa Bari, Head of Policy and External Affairs, Innovaccer
Kyle Kessler, Executive Director, Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas
Alisha Saucedo, Owner, RISE Professional LLC

To learn more about the Kansas Health Impact Conference visit kfmc.org. To submit a nomination for next year’s award, visit kfmc.org/health-equity-innovation-award.

Media Contact:

Sarah Irsik-Good, MHA
[email protected]