Our Focus

Southwest Kansas is a predominantly rural and frontier region rich in many assets. Due to food production and agricultural industry growth, the region has experienced the growth of Latino populations such that Latinos now account for more than half of the population in many southwest Kansas counties. Data suggest that Latinos in southwest Kansas are experiencing disproportionately and disparately poor health outcomes, such as diabetes-attributable mortality and years of potential life lost. They experience challenges accessing opportunities and resources to engage in health behaviors, such as healthy eating, being active and breastfeeding.

Our Funding

A CDC-funded grant program called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) focuses on reducing racial and ethnic health disparities or gaps. A CDC REACH grant will help us leverage partnerships between an academic institution and four community coalitions called Local Health Action Teams (LHEATs), which are based in Finney, Ford, Grant and Seward counties.

Our Goals

We strive to achieve the following goals by 2028:

• Create new opportunities for access to healthy foods through adoption of food service guidelines and expansion of opportunities to access fruits and vegetable voucher and incentive options.
• Implement policy, plan or community design changes that increase access to physical activity opportunities in four southwest Kansas counties.
• Enact five policy or system changes to increase access to continuity of care for breastfeeding families.

Our Approach

Over the last few years (and sometimes longer), the four LHEATs have worked collaboratively with a university partner to increase engagement of populations experiencing inequities and implemented strategies to create more opportunities for health and well-being or ameliorate inequitable conditions for health.

In this CDC REACH project, the LHEATs and academic partners will work collaboratively to select strategies from a curated list of evidence-based strategies which

1. have cultural and community relevance and
2. do not duplicate efforts with other initiatives.

Vicki Collie-Akers, Ph.D., MPH, CPH, associate professor in the Department of Population Health, leads the project.