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Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) was born from the 2020 COVID pandemic that inflamed the health disparities across many communities in Kansas. Our goal is to engage with communities as the health experts to address equity issues.

COPE is funded through a two-year grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national initiative to address COVID-19 health disparities in high-risk and underserved communities.

Our project activates a network of public health and community-based organizations, community health workers and partners in counties throughout Kansas. 

Sarah F. Kessler, Ph.D., MPH, associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, leads the project.

"Those of us who work in community health, either in the U.S. or abroad, really appreciate the immense value that community health workers bring. The great silver lining in these COVID-related funds is that they’ll help us strengthen the infrastructure for public health."

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Contact Us

Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) is a project of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, KU School of Medicine. We invite you to contact us at copekansas@kumc.edu.

KU School of Medicine

University of Kansas Medical Center
Family Medicine & Community Health
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Mailstop 4010
Kansas City, KS 66160