About Us

The Rural Community Health Improvement Partnership (R-CHIP) model addresses health-related social needs by fostering multisector community partnerships in rural Maine. It integrates health care, social services, and public health systems to expand access, improve health outcomes, and reduce care costs.

Building the Foundation

To kick off the project, from March 2023 to November 2024, demonstration sites were identified:

• Northern Maine (Aroostook County Health Improvement Partnership (A-CHIP))
• Central Maine (Somerset and Kennebec Counties Community Partnership (SKCCP))
• DownEast Maine (DownEast Housing Collaborative (DHC))

The sites identified barriers to accessing essential health services and priority health-related social needs. Each site established governance structures and developed strategies to tackle priority local needs, such as systems-level change, lack of transportation, housing insecurity, and cross-sector collaboration.

In addition, MCD Global Health provided technical assistance that supports a peer-learning network, project planning, an independent evaluation, and funding efforts.

Sustaining Progress

Each of the demonstration sites has established a regional partnership infrastructure, involved strong local leadership and community engagement, and conducted robust readiness assessments to identify priority local and regional community and health system needs and developed priority focus areas.

While each of the sites is actively soliciting funding for programmatic activities, core infrastructure funding is needed to sustain the ‘hub’ infrastructure of the three individual partnerships and the technical assistance hub. This core infrastructure funding will accelerate dissemination and replication of the R-CHIP model to other rural regions and communities in Maine.

Accomplishments during Phase I
(March 2023–November 2024):

• Established community partnership,
• Conducted community readiness assessments,
• Identified priority focus area(s),
• Sought programmatic grant funding, and
• Established a peer-learning group.