As a formal organization, Leaveners Community Foundation was created in 1994 through the efforts of Erik Kilgren and his father, Evert Kilgren, and Clark Coan. Erik Kilgren came to this work after thirteen years of work in public mental health, nine of those years as a psychologist in state hospitals working with severely emotionally disturbed persons. His vision was to build a small organization, cooperative if not communal in structure, that would help individuals who had experienced serious trauma or difficulties resulting from  disabilities or significant social problems. It was of primary importance that this work be based on an inclusive, compassionate spirituality and foster the values of individual responsibility, cooperation and concern for the common good in those helped.

  For Clark Coan, Leaveners was another project in a twenty-five year career of working to improve the social environment through practical implentation of Gandhian ethics. Evert Kilgren brought to the process his personal experience of a childhood lived in poverty with Swedish immigrant parents, as well as his concern for people with disabilities  and his generosity.

  The primary purpose of Leaveners Community Foundation, as stated in the original organizing document, is to "create and support organizations that work to improve the social, spiritual, psychological and/or material conditions of the disadvantaged and those with disabilities in a communal context."  Leaveners was incorporated in 1995 under the laws of the State of Kansas as a not-for-profit corporation and awarded 501 (c)(3) status as a Private Non-Operating Foundation the same year. Currently, an application to the Internal Revenue Service requesting a determination of private operating foundation status for Leaveners is being drawn up, based on its recent direct service projects.

  In terms of methods, it was envisioned that the organization would work from "the inside out"--inside the person and outside the "system." "Inside the person" meaning working from a perspective that supports the inner person--the person's emotional, spiritual and psychological health and maturity--and "outside the system" meaning avoiding the "business as usual in spite of good intentions" bureaucracy that constitutes many social service systems and agencies. (This statement is not meant to slight the numerous public social service and mental health workers who do care and who do try to provide quality services in spite of outmoded approaches, an often rule-bound bureaucracy, and unrealistically full caseloads and job descriptions.)  Applying E. F. Schumacher's ideas of appropriate technology to social service, Leaveners uses simple and efficient methodologies that address problems at the level of people's needs and social milieu with a minimum of "bureaucracy."

  This website is, among other things, a step in the direction of finding other organizations and persons with similar interests with whom Leaveners can link--an attempt at  building community and collective positive action using the Internet.  Leaveners Community Foundation, Inc. would like to sincerely thank Mr. Hinko Vincar of Bihac, Bosnia for his help in making this website possible.