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About US

Address

2209 SW 29th St, Topeka, KS 66611

Contact

(785) 266-8666

OUR MISSION
To support youth and communities in creating healthy and safe environments through crime prevention, substance abuse prevention,
and other behavioral health services.
OUR VISION
Healthy, safe and resilient communities.
A Few Words

About Us​

Prevention and Resiliency Services, Inc. (PARS) has provided prevention services in Shawnee County since 1965. When PARS was incorporated, it was known as National Council on Alcoholism, Kansas Division. The agency’s original focus was on increasing the understanding of alcoholism, its nature, its treatment and decreasing the harms and incidence of alcoholism.

As issues have changed and knowledge has evolved over the years, PARS has continually responded to emerging trends, research on the prevention of addiction, and how programs, practices and policies influence individuals and the environment in which they live. Our programs and activities recognize that the individual, family, school, and community domains are all interconnected and influence not only substance use, but also impact school dropouts, violence, suicide, teen pregnancy and other problem behaviors. PARS has a strong foundation of community, neighborhood, and school partnerships and has been nationally recognized for its substance abuse prevention and crime prevention services.

As a health and safety connector, PARS will continue to educate, engage, and empower our community to reduce substance abuse and crime in our community.

How We Operate

Key Values

  • Evidence-based and researched-based strategies are effective in reducing substance abuse and crime.
  • Community members play an essential role in preventing crime – it takes a community to impact change.
  • We must be current with trends related to substance abuse and behavioral health and we must learn from our work with community members.
  • To affect change within our community, we must partner with diverse stakeholders.
  • We must employ multiple strategies to reach our target audience; this is critical to our work.
  • Our community is defined by the people we serve.
GET TO KNOW US

Meet the Team

Mandy Czechanski

Executive Director

Lynn Smith

Community Prevention Consultant

Judy Wilson

Office Manager
National Night Out Program Coordinator

MANDY CZECHANSKI, Executive Director

mczechanski@parstopeka.org

Lynn Smith, Community Prevention Consultant

lsmith@parstopeka.org

Lynn is a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Kinesiology. Lynn joined the Prevention Services Department at PARS in June of 2012 as a Community Prevention Consultant. In this role, Lynn gives presentations in the schools and in the community addressing substance abuse and prevention education.

Prior to joining the Prevention Services Department, Lynn spent six years with Safe Streets (another program of PARS). At Safe Streets, Lynn was the Youth Development Coordinator and Community Mobilizer.

Lynn’s interest in Prevention work stems from wanting youth to be successful in life. Lynn
understands firsthand how using substances can negatively impact one’s life, so Lynn feels it’s important to educate today’s youth about the dangers of using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs. Outside of work, Lynn enjoys coaching sports and has done this for the past 20 years.

Judy Wilson, Office Manager &
National Night Out Program Coordinator

jwilson@safestreets.org

Judy Wilson serves as Office Manager and National Night Out Program Coordinator and has been with PARS since 2004. Her work involves multiple agency activities and she supports crime prevention programming through neighborhood watch, National Night Out and trainings.

Before joining PARS, Judy worked at Evergy (formerly known as Westar Energy) for almost 25 years as Administrative Assistant to high level executives. She brings legal, banking, education, insurance, wholesale distribution and medical experience in addition to holding Certified Administrative Professional and Organizational Management designations through the International Association of Administrative Professionals.

When not working Judy enjoys spending time with her husband Max, music, reading, has volunteered with the Rescue Mission, and is serving as an officer in the Rolling Meadows Neighborhood Association. Judy enjoys traveling to International Association of Administrative Professionals meetings.

One of her favorite quotes is from the Starfish Story “Let’s each make a difference with the talent we’ve been given.”

SaRAH COATS

Substance Abuse Counselor

Gia Collins

S.A.V.E. Project Outreach Coordinator
Grants Manager

ERIC TWEEDY

Communication Specialist

SARA COATS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE Counselor

scoats@parstopeka.org

Sarah Coats earned her Bachelor’s of Social Work in 2009 and Masters of Social Work in 2012. She is a proud graduate of Topeka High School and Washburn University.

Sarah has devoted her life to helping vulnerable and at-risk populations in our community. Sarah’s back ground is richly diverse bringing advanced knowledge in many fields including domestic violence, human trafficking, the foster-care system and working with the aging population.  

In her free time, Sarah enjoys spending time with her husband their 3 children. She loves to hike, read, and crochet. She’s an avid Kansas Jayhawks fan.

Gia Collins, SAVE project Outreach Coordinator/Grants Manager

gcollins@parstopeka.org

 

Communication & Education Specialist

parstopeka.org

 

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GET TO KNOW US

Meet the Board

Deb Grunst

President
VP IT Applications
Evergy

Vice-President

Neb Cabrilo

Treasurer
Commercial Loan Officer
CoreFirst Bank & Trust

Sandie Bayless

Secretary
Manager, Corporate Security
Evergy

Michael Brozek

Blesk LLC

Brian L. Carver CISSP, CISM

Manager, Information Technology and Services
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas

Bennie Davis

Community Volunteer
Retired, Goodyear Tire Company

Angel Romero Sr.

SFC, USA (RET) 

Aaron A. Starr

Financial Advisor 
Edward Jones

Tracey Stratton

Public Relations Manager
Advisors Excel