Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP)

March 2, 2015

Mission Statement: Community Health Improvement Partners (CHIP) is a San Diego-based 501c3 non-profit organization who envisions a San Diego region where everyone has the opportunity to achieve optimal health and well-being. CHIP’s mission is to advance long-term solutions to priority health needs through collaboration and community engagement. CHIP’s purpose is to assess community health needs, educate and advocate to create policy, systems, and environmental change which reduce health disparities.

Impact Statement: CHIP achieves its mission and goals by working through initiatives and programs. These collaborative groups are made up of representatives from public agencies, healthcare providers, community-based organizations, institutes of higher learning, and businesses. CHIP works within these groups to help identify or implement strategies that address service gaps affecting public health. CHIP’s collaborative efforts help communities to build their capacity to address issues such as the social determinants of health and access to care that cannot be solved by one health system or community-based organization alone.

The San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (COI) is a public-private partnership whose mission is to reduce and prevent childhood obesity through policy, systems, and environmental change. The COI uses a collective impact model to engage agencies, organizations, and individuals from multiple sectors to work together to combat childhood obesity. CHIP serves as the lead agency and backbone organization for the COI.

The Chula Vista Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) project, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), brings together partners from city government, school districts, childcare, and community health centers to improve access to healthy foods and beverages and opportunities for physical activity for the primary population of Latinos in the Chula Vista zip codes of 91911 and 91910.

The Lemon Grove Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Zone, funded by Kaiser Permanente, is a collaborative of Lemon Grove residents and organizations working to build a city where people eat better and move more as a part of daily life. The HEAL Zone joins business, community, early childhood, faith, healthcare, local government, media, schools, and service organizations to implement healthy eating and active living projects.

The Resident Leadership Academy (RLA) is a 10-session training that educates community residents on how environments shape health outcomes and empowers them to advocate for healthy food access, improved public safety and increased physical activity opportunities in their neighborhoods. Hundreds of community residents have graduated from the RLA program, resulting in community improvement projects throughout SD County.

The Independent Living Association (ILA) is a first-of-its-kind, collaborative effort that supports and promotes high-quality Independent Livings, which are privately owned homes that house adults with mental illness and other disabling health conditions. The ILA hosts an online directory of high-quality Independent Livings and provides training and education to Independent Living owners, residents, and the community.

The Suicide Prevention Council is a collaborative, community-wide effort focused on realizing a vision of zero suicides in San Diego County. As part of its collective work carrying out the Suicide Prevention Action Plan for San Diego County, the Council offers Question, Ask, Persuade (QPR) trainings. As of 2014, QPR has empowered more than 7,000 San Diegans to recognize warning signs of suicide, offer hope, and get help to save a life.

The Health Literacy San Diego (HLSD) is a joint effort of CHIP and San Diego Council on Literacy to support the understanding of basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. HLSD’s work is based on When Words Get in the Way: A Collaborative Plan to Address Health Literacy in San Diego County. Recognizing that healthcare is a participative process between patients and healthcare providers, HLSD targets both healthcare providers and adults with low health literacy, including seniors, low-literate individuals, those with cultural differences, non-native English speakers, and persons with physical and mental disabilities.

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