1602-11890

North Carolina: Support to the North Carolina Oral Health Collaborative (NCOHC) to continue strengthening and expanding the North Carolina network. Specifically, this project will aim to enhance communications; support organizational capacity and grassroots organizing; support individual capacity building and engage new actors; build and collect evidence for advocacy; influence policy development, decision-making, and implementation; and highlight innovative service delivery and pilot projects. As part of this project, NCOHC will provide seven capacity building mini-grants to community-based non-for-profit organizations that will help develop the North Carolina Oral Health Agenda. NCOHC's strategies will focus on enabling organizations and local community members to advocate for measures that increase access to oral health care using the North Carolina Oral Health Agenda as their guide. The proposed project primarily 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. $150,921 will be used to provide mini-grants, cover meeting expenses, part of staff and consultants time, evaluation, travel, and supplies needed to implement the project.