Health and Wellness Grant

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office has been awarded $98,040.00 in Federal grant funding to support their Peer Support and Resilience Initiative.  The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced earlier this month $4.5 million in grants for the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act Program.

The Sheriff recently hired Health and Wellness Coordinator, Wendy Hummell, a retired Wichita Police Detective, to develop, implement, and oversee programs and training for employees, families, and retirees of the Sheriff’s Office. 

Wellness encompasses a wide range of concepts to include physical, social, mental, and emotional factors.  One of the priorities of the program is the creation of a peer support team. Team members will provide peer mentoring for other employees and offer assistance and appropriate support resources when personal or professional problems arise.  The funding is a crucial piece in training and supporting the team as well as offering resources and wellness events for agency members, their families, and retirees.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office is part of a state wide peer support network, FRST Midwest, and regularly meets with several other local first responder agencies.  Collaboration, information sharing, and relationship building are the foundation of this network.  The Sheriff’s Office plans to bring a week long peer support training to Wichita three times over the two year grant cycle.   This training will also be available to our local partners.  This collaborative approach enhances relationships to help better support one another in times of crisis.

Two other agencies in Kansas also received grant funding; Olathe Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI). 

The full list of awards is available here:  https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2020AwardDocs/lemhwa/Award_List.pdf