Hometown Partnerships for Health

Do You —

Want to help improve the health of your community? Desire to Work in Your Community’s Health Center as a physician?

If you answered “yes,” then Hometown Partnerships for Health may be for you!

The School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona was started in response to a request from, and in partnership with, the nation’s healthcare safety net of Community Health Centers. The purpose of Hometown is to help the innovative new medical school meet the needs of Community Health Centers by attracting and training dedicated, motivated, and qualified community-minded physicians. This information is designed to help you explore how you might become a Hometown endorsed applicant.

Hometown Endorsed Applicants:

* Locate a Community Health Center (CHC) to stay involved with
* Develop relationships with CHC staff and leadership
* Learn about the working environment of a CHC
* Gain valuable volunteer or work experience
* Gain SOMA application endorsement from a CHC leader
* Obtain instruction from CHC leaders in seeking employment pathways

A Hometown endorsement lets the medical school know which applicants Community Health Centers believe could become the compassionate community-minded healers they would like to employ. If you are interested in seeking a Hometown endorsement, visit the Bureau of Primary Health Care webpage to identify a Community Health Center to connect with as a volunteer or employee. In this way, you can learn about that health center’s approach for improving community health, develop health center relationships, and (hopefully) gain the endorsement from that CHC.

A Community Health Center leader can advocate for your acceptance into the medical school by sending a Hometown endorsement letter to Gary Cloud (address below). Hometown letters of endorsement do not replace the regular application process. Hometown endorsement letters parallel the regular application process – a process that requires its own letters of support.

What is a Community Health Center?

CHC Mission
To promote the provision of high-quality, comprehensive healthcare that is accessible, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, and community directed for all underserved populations.

CHC Service
Community, Migrant, and Homeless Health Centers are not-for-profit providers of healthcare to America’s poor and medically underserved. Health centers serve the working poor and the uninsured in the nation’s neediest intercity, suburban, and rural communities. CHC innovative programs in primary and preventive care serve 16 million people at 5,000 health center locations.

The innovative and successful Community Health Center model has been heralded as a template for the nation’s healthcare system. The model blends comprehensive primary care strategies, health services coordination and teamwork, measured community outreach, and continuous quality improvement methods to advance community health status. The nation, however, is facing a shortage of physicians and health center communities will be especially hard hit by a lack of healers. Consequently, the National Association of Community Health Centers has partnered with A.T. Still University to establish the new School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona.

Admissions

Hometown Partnerships for Health

Do You —

Hometown Endorsed Applicants:

What is a Community Health Center?

More information and related links