Engagement studios: Students and communities working to address the determinants of health

Background: This article presents an innovative model for interprofessional community-oriented learning. The Engagement Studios model involves a partnership between community organizations and students as equal partners in conversations and activities aimed at addressing issues of common concern as they relate to the social determinants of health. Methods: Interprofessional teams of students from health and non-health disciplines work with community partners to identify priority community issues and explore potential solutions. Results: The student teams work with a particular community organization, combining their unique disciplinary perspectives to develop a project proposal, which addresses the community issues that have been jointly identified. Approved proposals receive a small budget to implement the project. Discussion: In this paper we present the Engagement Studios model and share lessons learned from a pilot of this educational initiative.