Back in 2023 the organization, known then as Emporia Spanish Speakers, incorporated as a non-profit entity; however, it did so under its recently announced new name, Kansas Spanish Speakers.
So if the organization was already operating under the new name and identity, why then did it just announce said identity this past Tuesday? According to founder and executive director Lelan Dains, the organization was waiting for just the right time to make the announcement.
During an interview on KVOE’s Talk of Emporia Friday Dains says several factors recently came together to make this the perfect time for that announcement, including a recent addition to their staff.
Dains also cited an increase in operational capacity and a decrease in needs related to the Tyson Closure from earlier this year as contributing factors.
As KVOE News reported Tuesday, with the name change came an enhanced vision for the non-profit to expand its services and programming beyond Emporia’s borders to a state level, and possibly even further at some point in the future. When KVOE News asked Dains Tuesday how they plan to begin that expansion, he stated there were still several pieces needing to fall in place.
Friday Dains stated the full road map is still not drawn up; however, they do know where the immediate focus needs to be.
Dains also stated Friday that while more awareness is needed locally and abroad, the wheels of expansion are well in motion thanks to pre-existing partnerships with other Kansas communities.
Dains says continuing to foster those relationships will be key for continued expansion, calling these efforts a “Phase one” of sorts for the non-profit’s larger mission. As for phase two, Dains says that it will require connecting with leadership from these other communities.
Kansas Spanish Speakers began back in 2017 as a community group meant to foster a desire for learning the Spanish language. It would quickly grow over the next several years before officially becoming a non-profit organization back in 2023, as previously mentioned.
Following the organization’s non-profit incorporation, it operated out of the Visit Emporia offices, where Dains was serving as Director, a role he assumed back in 2021, replacing longtime, then Emporia Convention and Visitors Bureau leader, the late Susan Rathke. Dains announced his departure from Visit Emporia last November to assume the role of Executive Director of Spanish Speakers, which found a new home earlier this year, sharing space in the Emporia Humanitarian Center.
While the organization’s work will be expanding beyond Emporia’s borders, it will maintain its headquarters in Emporia.
