About CUP and CKSCP

On September 11, 1989, Mayor Charles Luken and Konstantin Khirnyi, leader of the Kharkiv delegation, signed official documents uniting Cincinnati and Kharkiv as sister cities. Since then, the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program (CKSCP) has attracted the interest and participation of over 3,000 Cincinnatians.
 
From 1989 until 2004, the organization was named the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Project (CKSCP). In July 2004, the board voted to rename the parent organization the Cincinnati-Ukraine Partnership (CUP) with CUP’s main subsidiary being renamed the Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program (CKSCP).
 
Over 2,500 Cincinnatians and Kharkivites have traveled between the two cities through delegations and exchange programs sponsored by Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program (CKSCP) to share, teach, learn, and understand. Cincinnati-Kharkiv is known as one of the strongest sister city pairings in the world, and now the Cincinnati-Ukraine Partnership (CUP) continues and expands the success of CKSCP to reach all of Ukraine.
 
All support for our volunteer-driven, non-profit organization comes from private contributions by individuals, corporations and foundations. Major projects are funded through federal and local grants. CKSCP has organizes and facilitates exchanges in areas ranging from education and youth to individual liberty to professionals. (See Exchanges and Programs for descriptions and complete chronological lists by type of exchange.)

We have also helped to found a landmark volunteer counterpart committee in Kharkiv, the Kharkiv-Cincinnati Sister City Association (KCSCA) and an American Center in Kharkiv, the first of its kind in the former Soviet Union.
 
The Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Program is a member of the Sister Cities Association of Greater Cincinnati (SCA), which was reorganized in November 2004 as the OKI Sister City Coalition (OKISCC), and a member of Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI).