Congratulations to the delegates attending the 44th Annual Kansas State AFL-CIO Community Services Conference in downtown Wichita this week, celebrating an 80-year partnership between Labor and the United Way.
The conference was a wealth of information where delegates learned to watch for signs of mental health-related distress and the new 9-8-8 number to call, text, or chat with the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They also spent time assembling comfort kits for the Wichita Police Department. Each comfort kit included a stuffed animal, a children’s book, a birth certificate for the stuffed animal, and information about United Way 211 Information and Referral. Kits will be distributed to children that officers encounter through their work.
IBEW Local 226 member Jim Grunewald was selected to receive the 2022 – F. Charles Duran Award for his long-standing involvement in union/labor-related community activity.
Speaker Highlights for the conference included the Mayor of Wichita, Dr. Brandon Whipple – President/CEO of United Way of the Plains, Pete Najera – Kansas Lieutenant Governor David Tolan – Clinical Liaison and Co-Founder of Stop Suicide ICT, Baily Blair.
A big THANK YOU to the United Way of the Plains AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison, Mario Cervantes, and his wife for making this conference a success!
The conference included Union delegates from the: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), Sheet Metal Workers (SMW), The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), Plumbers and Pipefitters United Association (UA), United Steel Workers (USW). Kansas AFL-CIO, Topeka Federation of Labor, Wichita/Hutchinson Federation of Labor, Kansas State Union Label and Service Trades Council, and the Wichita Area Union Label and Service Trades Council.