In northern California, Communities & Health Professionals Together (CHPT) is changing the health of future generations, one physician at a time.  An AmeriCorps*VISTA grantee, CHPT is a collaboration of grassroots community leaders, university faculty and trainees, and AmeriCorps*VISTA members who are working to change the way doctors practice medicine.  By teaching the concepts of “Asset-Based Community Development,” “Social Determinants of Health” and the “Patient-Centered Medical Home” through both didactic and hands-on community-based experiences, CHPT is creating a new kind of primary care provider. 

University of California, Davis Residents – physicians in the last phase of their training – in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics are paired with strengths-focused community organizations for their three-year training tenure.  Through this partnership, local community leaders are mobilized as “community faculty,” who introduce the resident physicians to their communities, and help them understand the connections between poverty, place and patient health.  Residents attend community events, meet with parents, teachers, elected officials and other stakeholders, and participate in activities such as “day in the life,” where they experience the challenges that families in poverty face, on a day to day basis, when trying to prepare healthy meals or access healthcare.  In addition, residents develop relationships with local leaders and identify potential interventions that might improve access or education in the community. 

AmeriCorps*VISTAs work in partner communities to help build local capacity to train increasing numbers of resident physicians, and other health professionals such as nurses and public health students (CHPT was formerly called “Communities & Physicians Together,” but changed its name in 2010 in order to lead the way in interdisciplinary community health training for professionals across the healthcare spectrum).  VISTAs play a critical role in assisting with the creation of new curricula, developing funding and other resources to support resident/community designed interventions, and build a broad base of support for the mutually beneficial relationships that CHPT helps create between communities and health providers.

Since its inception in 1999, CHPT has trained 289 resident physicians in eleven communities throughout the Sacramento region, resulting in over three dozen community interventions. Each project profoundly impacts the health and overall wellbeing of countless children, youth, families and seniors. All of this work has been made possible in part by the skills, talents and dedication of nine AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers.