1612-12687

National: This investment supports the Youth Empowered Solutions (YES!) to continue integrating a youth network component into the existing infrastructure of the Oral Health 2020 network. Building on the work done in Year 1, YES! will continue working to 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, and activate youth to address social determinants of health by increasing their critical awareness and skills, and providing opportunities for them to engage in change-making processes. Specific activities of Year 2 will include: supporting the teams of youth recruited within the Cohort 1 of three communities to build their capacity to become active members of the Oral Health 2020 network; bringing on Cohort 2 of three additional communities who will begin building their internal infrastructure to support a greater youth presence; and developing, institutionalizing, and disseminating a series of resources to the larger Oral Health 2020 network to begin exploring a youth engagement strategy. 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. $154,300 will support personnel time, travel and meeting expenses, stipends for participating communities, and supplies.