About Us

North Sound ACH exists to create a just and inclusive culture and the necessary conditions required for all community members to thrive.

We are weaving a community health system where everyone in the North Sound can thrive. We know communities are more powerful than systems. We connect and strengthen both.  

Who We Are

North Sound Accountable Community of Health (ACH) is a regional nonprofit founded in 2015, building a community health system that can carry what people need to be healthy and thrive. We serve more than 1.3 million people across Snohomish, Skagit, Island, San Juan, and Whatcom counties — the traditional homelands of eight Tribal Nations, whose sovereignty and partnership shape how we do this work.

Over our first decade, we have grown into a network of 270+ partners working across health, social services, and community – investing more than $35M in partner projects that help people move from surviving to thriving.

How We’re Supported

North Sound ACH is funded primarily through Washington State’s Medicaid Waiver program, a federal-state partnership that supports community-driven health transformation. As one of nine Accountable Communities of Health across Washington, we work alongside the Health Care Authority to improve outcomes for Medicaid enrollees and the broader community we serve. 

Why This Work Matters

Up to 80% of a person’s health is shaped outside the clinic: by housing, food, transportation, and the conditions of community life. Yet the systems designed to address those needs are fragmented. Efforts are disconnected, accountability is unclear, and many communities are excluded from the decisions that affect their health.

North Sound ACH exists to help change that pattern.

How We Work

Belonging: When people feel they belong, they are more likely to be healthy. We build belonging within our workplace, with partners, and across communities so everyone can see themselves in the work we do.

Targeted Universalism: We set shared regional goals and measure progress over time. We work with each community to address what matters most to them, using data and local knowledge together to close persistent gaps.

Vital Conditions for Well-Being: Whole-person health includes everything a person needs to live a healthy, thriving life: safe housing, healthy food, access to care, social connection, steady income, and a healthy environment.

Honoring Tribal Sovereignty: We sit on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish people. We benefit from their stewardship of this place and learn from their wisdom of providing care and services to the whole person and the whole community.

Tribes of the North Sound

We acknowledge, with humility, that the land of the North Sound ACH region today is the territory of the People of the Salish Sea. Their presence is imbued in the waterways, shorelines, valleys, and mountains of the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish People, since time immemorial.

North Sound ACH is committed to an ongoing journey to learn about and build relationships with the tribes of the North Sound region. We adopted a Land Acknowledgement statement in 2018 to recognize the space that we inhabit and the people who add such richness to its history, and are doing some of the most innovative work in current time.

Additional information can be found at the American Indian Health Commission for Washington State,  on the Washington tribes page here, and on the Washington Health Care Authority site here.

Find out what native land you inhabit at https://native-land.ca/

Learn more about our journey in developing our land acknowledgment with the following resources:

• Land Acknowledgement Brief
• Land Acknowledgment Handout – with Setting Sun Circle (formerly Children of the Setting Sun Productions)
• Tribal Sovereignty