Enhancing Community-Linked Research in Wyandotte County

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In terms of health, Wyandotte County ranks 105th out of the 105 counties in the state of Kansas. Wyandotte County is a 'majority minority' county with high rates of poverty, unemployment, poor access to healthcare and excessive morbidity and mortality. Community leaders and policy makers in Wyandotte County and the state of Kansas need to know how to improve the health of the citizens of Wyandotte County. They are in need of the knowledge that can be delivered by academic-community partnerships engaged in high quality, community-based participatory research. Over the past five years, researchers in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine at KUMC have been forging new efforts to overcome the inertia surrounding community-based research in Wyandotte County. This faculty has worked closely with two key County institutions: El Centro, Inc. and the Wyandotte County Health Department. Although we have seen some initial successes, efforts have been stymied by a lack of infrastructure. The Wyandotte County Research Development Collaborative (WyCoRD) will address this problem by creating an academic-community home that will support sustainable linkages between community members, community leaders, and KUMC researchers in Wyandotte County. This academic-community home will bring researchers and community members together into Innovation Action Teams with the resources that they need to conduct research and build sustainable partnerships that will address the key priorities of the community. The WyCoRD will: 1) empower community members to effectively advocate for their health and research priorities with academic researchers; 2) train researchers to actively listen to the concerns of the local community; 3) establish sustainable research support for academicians and community members that are engaged in community- based research; and 4) create an environment in which both KUMC and key community organizations and non-profit funders are committing significant fiscal support to academic-community research partnerships in Wyandotte County. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: In terms of health, Wyandotte County Kansas ranks 105th out of the 105 counties in the state of Kansas. The Wyandotte County Research Development Collaborative will establish academic-community research partnerships designed to find innovative solutions to address the needs of this disaffected community.