1702-12964

Arizona: Support to Native American Connections (NAC) to act as a lead convener in the Phoenix community as part of the Grassroots Engagement. Native American Connections’ Oral Health Initiative is working on improving oral health through community organizing, social justice, and systems change by engaging with two target areas: NAC urban housing communities and Native American community/provider organizations. To achieve success, NAC embraces cultural norms and practices including kinship and the use of community health representatives, while working in their housing communities to gain critical insights on oral health values and priorities. NAC also makes linkages to oral health improvement work happening in tribal and urban Native American communities across the state. Following the Learn/Assess and Plan, the NAC Oral Health Initiative launched into engagement in 2016. NAC focused on developing relationships with other grassroots organization, providers, and NAC staff and community champions. Engaging an outside facilitator, NAC created a framework to encourage community champions/leaders to support oral health buy-in and empowerment among other housing community members. An essential component of this process was navigating the tension between community members and the oral health system and providers. The development of the community empowerment foundation helped NAC to create a toolbox for a train-the-trainer model focused on community organizing, social justice orientation, and systems change with activities targeted towards the different generations. These efforts resulted in a collaborative process focused on identifying and refining a Community-Driven Oral Health Plan, and strategies for implementation of the plan in 2017/18. In 2016, Native American Connections played a role in getting Kids Care passed in the state of Arizona by working with then Senator Carlyle Begay and their network of oral health champions focused on passing this key legislation. This is noteworthy because Arizona was the last state to enact care for children under the CHIP program. Oral Health 2020 investment of $100,800 will be used to support implementation of the Community-Driven Oral Health Plan to engage community members in efforts to address systemic oral health change and health equity. NAC’s oral health priorities take a tiered approach stepping up consumers active engagement in implementation efforts, which include 1) Community members articulate the importance of oral health as part of whole health, 2) Increase utilization of available oral health resources and systems, and 3) Increase community advocacy at the local, state and federal levels. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 Goal 6 of improving the public perception of the value of oral health to overall health and the target that oral health is increasingly included in health dialogue and public policy.