Community Outreach Partnership Centers Program

The East End Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) will utilize the resources of the University of Kentucky (UK), the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG), twentyfour community organizations and the expertise of affected citizens to revitalize the East End community in Lexington, Kentucky. The East End Community is an older city neighborhood that has several poverty-related issues that need to be addressed. Foremost among these are a need for community-family self-sufficiency, poor educational attainment, lack of affordable and habitable housing and a neighborhood needing revitalization. The University of Kentucky, representatives from local government, community-based organizations and residents designed the COPCto address the needs of the East End. The COPe's componentsare 1) The Community-Family Resource Program will create six Village Exchange Groups in which the residents will share knowledge and skills as they work toward self-sufficiency, increase community leadership by training residents to become proactive in the East End, and put into place structures for better coordination of community based services. 2) The Family Educational Resource Program will provide services to families to assist in understanding the effect of administrative and programmatic decisions on their children. The goal is to increase school performance, decrease the drop out rate, and help residents with employment opportunities. 3) The Housing Revitalization Program will provide comprehensive assistance to residents of the East End who have housing problems. The goal is to improve the housing stock as well as increase home ownership. 4) The Neighborhood Revitalization Program will promote commercial development in the East End and improve habitation in public areas.