Community Health Aide Program Readiness Assessment Project Summary

The Community Health Aide Program (CHAP) has helped address health service delivery needs in rural Alaska Native villages since 1968. Authorized by Congress to oversee national expansion more than 40 years later, the Indian Health Service convened the CHAP Tribal Advisory Group (CHAP TAG) to provide critical input and feedback.

The CHAP TAG includes tribal leaders and tribal health care representatives from each of the 12 IHS Regions. This summary was developed as a resource for CHAP TAG members to support their discussions about CHAP with local community members and other Regional partners. It also describes the CHAP Readiness Assessment Project led by JBA. The JBA team is developing a customizable toolkit to help tribes consider whether, when, and how to support CHAP implementation.