Improving Community-Driven Health Benchmarks Through University-Community Partnerships: Using Community Engagement to Establish the Center for African American Health in Kansas

Addressing health inequities in Kansas on access to care, health outcomes, and the impact of social determinants of health is necessary. The Center for African American Health (CAAH), now The Broderick Crawford Center for Advancing Community Health and Health Outcomes was established to create a community-university partnership to improve health outcomes in two Kansas communities. CAAH was uniquely created to utilize community-based participatory research tools in creating health and behavioral health programs, fostering education, and research implementation that focuses on health equity. This perspective will focus on the implementation of the center in two Kansas communities.