1511-11633

National: Support to the Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) to build and integrate a youth network component into the existing infrastructure of the Oral Health 2020 network. Specifically, YES! will work with three communities in different geographic areas in building their internal infrastructure to support a greater youth presence. This will position these three communities to effectively recruit, retain, and activate youth who will be empowered to create policy, system, and environmental change. By doing so, YES! will help raise public awareness of oral health through youth-driven advocacy, engage individuals and communities to advocate for the inclusion of oral health in public health and public policy, lift up the voices of youth as leaders, activate youth to address social determinants through increasing their critical awareness and skills, and provide opportunities for youth to engage in change-making processes. The proposal will advance the systems change outcome of building a strong community prevention and care infrastructure. It aligns with the Oral Health 2020 goal of improving public perception of the value of oral health within overall health and the target that oral health is increasingly included in health dialogue and public policy. $150,000 will support personnel time, travel and meeting expenses, stipends for participating communities, and supplies.