CHIPA

WHAT IS CHIPA?

The Community Health Initiative of the Petaluma Area (CHIPA) is an advisory committee of the Healthy Petaluma Board of Directors that identifies community health priorities and advocates for policy, system, and environmental changes to improve our community’s health.

CHIPA membership represents a diverse cross-section of southern Sonoma County – including nonprofits and service providers, schools, early childhood educators, county employees, health care providers, local police and fire departments, city officials, farmers, business leaders, and other community members.

CHIPA consults with the Healthy Petaluma board if there’s a recommendation to shift CHIPA priorities.

Priorities

Guided by the five tenets of the Collective Impact approach to achieve lasting improvements in the health of our community, CHIPA’s priorities are:

  1. Access to health services

  2. Mental health and substance abuse

  3. Heart health and healthy food consumption

  4. Educational attainment and early childhood education (Cradle to Career)

  5. Housing affordability and equity

CHIPA Youth

The experiences, knowledge, and connections of young people are critical to our collective understanding of the health of our community. In the past, CHIPA Youth Members have brought a powerful perspective and proposed unique ideas for addressing the health and wellness needs of our community. Healthy Petaluma is actively working with our partners to develop a new way to incorporate input from the young people in our community into the work we do.

Get Involved

To learn more about CHIPA, our work groups, or to share ideas for youth engagement, please contact Ben Spierings at bspierings@healthypetaluma.org or (707) 285-2143 x134.

Join us at an upcoming meeting! 

General meetings are open to the public and held quarterly. They offer the opportunity for shared learning, presentations from community leaders and providers, updates on health priority actions, and member discussion. CHIPA also organizes smaller work group meetings on a monthly basis to tackle targeted priorities that address some of the greatest needs in southern Sonoma County. At this time, all CHIPA meetings are held virtually via Zoom.