Table 1. Core Principles of the Citizen Health Care Model.

Core Principle	Rationale
1. The greatest untapped resource for improving health care is the knowledge, wisdom, and energy of individuals, families, and communities who face challenging health issues in their everyday lives.	Instead of first looking to professional resources, we look to family and community resources.
2. Families and communities are producers of health and health care, not just clients or consumers.	This empowers families and communities to co-create health interventions, understandings, and influence in partnership with professionals.
3. Health professionals are citizens, not just providers.	In this work, health professionals develop public skills as citizen professionals so that they can work in community groups with flattened hierarchies.
4. Citizens drive programs, rather than programs servicing citizens.	If you begin with an established program, you will not end up with an initiative that is “owned and operated” by citizens. But a citizen initiative might create or adopt a program as one of its activities.
5. Local communities must retrieve their own historical, cultural, and religious traditions of health and healing.	Each initiative should reflect the local culture in which it is positioned in order for the initiate to be co-owned; no two initiatives will look exactly alike.
6. Citizen health initiatives should have a bold vision while working pragmatically on focused, specific projects.	Think big, act practically, and let your light shine in order to sustain motivation.