KU Center for Community Health and Development

Image of man serving lunch to kids in school cafeteria.

Largest study of its kind gauges community efforts to combat childhood obesity: Groundbreaking publications have emerged from KU Center for Community Health and Development researchers’ study of 9,000 programs and policies from 130 communities across the nation to assess their effectiveness. Read more.

Image of Steve Fawcett represented KU’s WHO Collaborating Centre at the Regional Meeting of Mayors from Healthy Municipalities in the Americas, held in Santiago de Cuba on 6-7 November 2018. Pictured with Dr. Gerry Eijkemans, Director, and Micaela Pereira, Consultant, Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health Unit of the Pan American Health Organization.

Steve Fawcett represented KU’s WHO Collaborating Centre at the Regional Meeting of Mayors from Healthy Municipalities in the Americas, held in Santiago de Cuba on 6-7 November 2018. Pictured with Dr. Gerry Eijkemans, Director, and Micaela Pereira, Consultant, Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health Unit of the Pan American Health Organization.

Photo of team members Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson, Dola Gabriel, Nadia Jessop, and Courtney Moore from the Community Youth Development & Prevention Team.

Kansas City Youth Violence Prevention Project featured on KCUR "Up to Date" radio program. Listen here. Pictured here: team members Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson, Dola Gabriel, Nadia Jessop, and Courtney Moore. Read more.

We offer online documentation and evaluation services. Find out more.

Our mission: supporting community health and development through collaborative research and evaluation, teaching and training, and technical support and capacity building.

Since 2004, the Center for Community Health and Development has been continually designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development.

Recent Highlights:

Jomella Watson-Thompson Joins KU Center for Service Learning as Senior Faculty Associate

Congratulations to Associate Director for Community Participation and Research, Jomella Watson-Thompson, who is joining the KU Center for Service Learning as senior faculty associate. Watson-Thompson’s experience developing service-learning and community-engaged scholarship and partnerships will help expand engaged scholarship opportunities for KU students. Read more.

YouthLead.org Launches

At the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, USAID Agency Youth Coordinator Michael McCabe announced YouthLead, a new online platform for young global changemakers. We couldn't be happier to have the Community Tool Box serve as a content sponsor for this new platform, empowering young changemakers with tools for change from the Community Tool Box.The platform will serve as a collaborative marketplace where young changemakers can forge connections with a community of peers and scale their innovations. While focused on youth from the Global South, the platform is available globally.

Kansas City Youth Violence Prevention Project Featured on KCUR Up to Date

Listen to the November 20 KCUR Up to Date program featuring Jomella Watson-Thompson as she shares about the exciting new KCK Youth Prevention Project.

Healthy Communities Study Findings Shared at APHA

Associate director Vicki Collie-Akers and other members of the Healthy Communities Study presented findings about what communities are doing across the US to prevent or address childhood obesity at the American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting in Atlanta.

New Action Planning Guide

The KU Center for Community Health & Development is proud to partner with the KU Research & Training Center on Independent Living to offer a new resource entitled "Your Action Planning Guide for Promoting Full Community Participation Among People with Disabilities: A Resource for Independent Living Centers and Other Community-based Initiatives."

WHO-PAHO Healthy Communities Action Toolkit

Senior advisor Stephen Fawcett recently collaborated with the Pan American Health Organization on developing the WHO-PAHO Healthy Cities Action Toolkit, to provide guidance for taking action in promoting healthy cities, municipalities, and communities. The toolkit provides questions to consider, key activities and examples, and resources to help you with health promotion work in your community. This work is part of the KU Center’s World Health Organization Collaboration Centre. Access the toolkit in both English and Spanish.

Train-the-Trainer Workshop

Spearheaded by the Community Development Division of Battle Creek, MI, Jerry Schultz, one of the founders of the Community Tool Box and co-director of the KU Center for Community Health and Development, offered a week-long onsite "train the trainer" workshop covering core skills for community building.

Live Twitter Q&A with Macro Social Work

Community Tool Box director Christina Holt participated in a live Twitter Q&A with Macro Social Work changemakers on Sept. 28th. "Build Your #MacroSW Toolbox!" generated 655 tweets and over 1.8 million impressions. You can view the archive of the chat here.

Video: "Stoplights Don't Stop Us!"

In “Stoplights Don’t Stop Us!”, people with disabilities discuss how they advocated for change in their community to reduce barriers to participation. They received support from the Center for Community Health and Development and the Resource Center for Independent Living as part of a research project that looked at the effects of capacity-building training on community change and improvement efforts.

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