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CHIME (Community Health Initiative with McMaster Education) is an interprofessional group of McMaster students developing a community health initiative to help meet the needs of underserviced populations in Hamilton while gaining exposure to issues of inner city health. The group consists of student and faculty representatives from Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Midwifery, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, and Physician's Assistant Programs. This group emerged in May 2005, when McMaster students learned of a UBC student-run health clinic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; which, since its inception in 1999, has made a significant contribution to Vancouver’s inner-city community. With the premise of accomplishing a similar but unique initiative within the City of Hamilton, the CHIME Steering Committee was created in order to investigate and assess the unique needs of the Hamilton community.

Since May of 2005, our committee has been building relationships with and seeking advice from community organizations, McMaster faculty, similar student initiatives across Canada and health care professionals already in this field. We have also conducted a needs assessment of the inner city of Hamilton, by surveying demographics, analyzing previous reports, surveying key informants and performing focus groups of key informants and clients in the community.

Based on our needs assessment, we feel that our efforts are best spent using our expertise as health care professional students in providing health education and volunteering our time in various activities related to the social determinants of health at various locations throughout Hamilton servicing the homeless and poverty-stricken.