Community Partnerships

Tai Sophia's dedication to community health is backed by a legacy of partnerships that span over almost two decades. Formerly known as Community Health Initiative Sites/CHI Sites, these community based health centers focused on rebuilding communities one community member at a time. The Institute is dedicated to serving individuals who seek to learn the art of caring for themselves and each other in the course of life’s journey. From a small healing arts clinic founded in 1975, Tai Sophia has grown to become a preeminent academic institution for wellness-based research, education, and clinical care.

With a root in addictions and recovery, Tai Sophia began these community health sites in 1992 when we partnered with the Baltimore City Women’s Detention Center and provided acupuncture services to incarcerated women who were enrolled in the city's drug court program. In 1993, we developed the Penn North Neighborhood Center, modeled after the Internationally known Lincoln Recovery Center of the South Bronx in New York:  A drop in center for anyone in the community, struggling with addiction. In 1995, a deeper partnership was created with the Baltimore City Detention Center and it's drug court program when we extended our wellness services to the Baltimore City Men’s Detention Center. A partnership was formed in 1996 with Recovery in Community, an inner city non-profit that lends itself to round-the -clock recovery and housing services and in 1997 we began building our partnership with the Howard County Health Department. Tai Sophia is well practiced at forging relationships and affiliations that give rise to long lasting partnerships that benefit our students, our faculty and our communities.

These foundational partnerships have helped to lead the way to what are presently 10 community partnership sites throughout the Baltimore/Washington region. At each of these sites, our faculty and clinical interns deliver personalized health and wellness services to a broad base of clients in a diverse range of settings. Among the 10 sites, two are operated through organizational affiliations. All partnerships and affiliations provide acupuncture students with a wide range of experiences in using acupuncture in public health settings. This comprises a unique and important part of the curriculum for the Master of Acupuncture Program. Our programs meet and address an array of community health needs that include, and are not limited to, Behavioral Health , Recovery, Harm Reduction, Suicide Prevention, Behavioral Health Training, Crisis intervention and Trauma specific to PTSD and Violence.

Within the acupuncture curriculum, the course Introduction to Addiction and Community Health enhances the Level II student’s knowledge of the Chinese Medicine viewpoint of behavioral health, substance abuse and recovery. The course teaches the student the application of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) Acudetox five-needle protocol. Following this course, students spend a minimum of sixty hours at off-campus, faculty supervised, community clinic settings where they gain experience in using acupuncture and life-skills treatment models for detoxification and support of overall health and wellness. This experience enables the students to develop the skills of powerful listening and treating with compassion. In addition, students practice achieving and maintaining rapport with patients, within a community health care model, prior to their academic/clinical internship. Within their internship, they are called to treat individual patients at the Faculty-Supervised Clinics. Students are supervised by Tai Sophia clinical faculty or licensed acupuncturists employed by that agency.

For additional information about Community Partnership Sites, please contact:

Sharon Jennings-Rojas, M.Ac., L.Ac., RT(NADA)
Director of Community Partnerships
410-888-9048 ext. 6657