Samaritan Health Services (SHS) and the Oregon Office of Rural Health (OORH), partnered together to establish Community Health Improvement Partnership (CHIP) in east Linn County in 2003.

  CHIP is founded on the concept that local citizens can work together to identify health concerns and develop action plans and budgets to help solve them. For example, CHIP has been instrumental in the formation of Build Lebanon Trails (BLT), a group of citizens working to create 50 miles of hiking trails in Lebanon.

  In addition, CHIP serves as a tool for rural communities to communicate to SHS what it would like to see from the organization.

  "The great thing about this partnership," said Nancy Kirks, east Linn CHIP Coordinator, "is that the ideas and strategies are generated by people in the community, so the solutions are pertinent to what the community needs and there is local buy-in to the process."

  CHIP began by recruiting partners who represent all sectors of the community: health care, education, business, religion, government and social organizations.

  Through a careful process involving focus meetings, public forums and one-on-one interviews with local citizens, CHIP partners identified health-related Issue Areas in their respective communities.

  The "Issue Areas" were:
   • Affordable health care
   • Health education
   • Mental health
   • Prevention
   • Teen health
   • Transportation
   • Urgent care

  CHIP then formed Solution Teams to find concrete ways to address each of the Issue Areas. The results are citizen-initiated, volunteer led efforts to improve the overall health of the community.

  Current CHIP projects in addition to Build Lebanon Trails are the Healthy Active Lebanon (HAL) coalition, which is comprised of individuals and organizations who meet monthly to encourage and support healthy active opportunities. A few of the HAL projects are support of the community labyrinth walk project, smoking cessation programs, Communities That Care (CTC) programs, Lunch Buddy program, BLT, support of Albany Parks and Recreation programs offered in Lebanon and an on line community health calendar.

  The Teen Pregnancy Task Force (TPTF) is a local coalition working together to address the escalating pregnancies in the east Linn area. A teen mentoring program began in January 2007.

  The east Linn Health Coach Pilot Project recently completed a year of coaching participants to help remove barriers preventing a healthy lifestyle. Participants, identified by their medical provider received health coaching at no charge. Coaches were trained in Motivational Interviewing and Health Realization. Participants received one-on-one coaching for up to 3 hours. The health coach team is pursuing additional funding to continue this project.

  Sweet Home Healthy Active Partnership (SHHAP) is a coalition of individuals committee to improving the health status of their community. Current efforts are support of the Oregon Together group, continuation of the Lunch Buddy program, and implementation of the Get in Gear Bike repair shop aimed at school aged children.

  CHIP embodies the driving mission of SHS: to "build healthier communities together."

  If you would like more information on the CHIP process, visit Oregon Office of Rural Health or contact Troy Soenen at OORH, 503-494-4450.

  For more information on east Linn CHIP community projects and how you can get involved please contact Nancy Kirks, CHIP Coordinator at 541-451-6425 or email.

---