The African American Council of Elders of Wichita/South Central Kanas (COE) was founded in 2000 with the mission to provide advice, resources, a sounding board, guidance and reasoned solutions for the betterment of the community. Led by a circle of elders of African American or other African lineage, the group is guided by African heritage and traditions that espouse using accumulated wisdom, experience and spiritual insight to provide leadership, development, improvement and enrichment activities to the community. Originally organized to take on the immediate community crises drugs and crime, COE has since expanded to address other issues such as education, health and the environment. Through partnerships, COE has provided such programs and services as a roundtable to bring local groups together to share resources; a women’s health initiative; and a healthy caregivers retreat co-hosted by black psychologists leading seminars on how to navigate the unique health concerns of black patients.
The African American Council of Elders of Wichita/South Central Kansas (Photo courtesy of the Council of Elders social media)
COE includes members from across Kansas and is a part of the National Council of Elders, which was founded in 2019 with members throughout the United States and Ghana. COE has partnerships with a diversity of groups, including the Topeka African American Commission, Wichita State University and AARP. With the Kansas Health Foundation and the Urban League, COE participated in an initiative to bring digital literacy to the elderly community to help them navigate filling prescriptions, making appointments, accessing medical records and meeting with healthcare professionals online. On the environmental front, COE has joined with concerned community members to fight the installation of huge, unsightly and environmentally worrisome utility poles in black neighborhoods. In addition to the loss of urban canopy to install the poles, residents are also concerned about the loss of property values that could result from the potential cancer-causing health hazard of having high-voltage transmission lines overhead.