1702-12968

California: Support to the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California (LCHC) to act as a lead grassroots convener across a diverse, statewide network of stakeholders, with a strong presence in Sacramento, as part of the Grassroots Engagement Strategy. In the last year LCHC has recruited over 200 community members, with a reach of 2,400, to engage in community education on the importance of oral health advocacy. LCHC’s approach has been to bring community members and health advocates into the conversation to learn about and address barriers to oral health. LCHC’s major milestones and accomplishments include leading and disseminating a statewide and community-oriented oral health landscape assessment, identifying intersectionality of oral health with other health policy issues to increase awareness and knowledge of importance of oral health and health equity, increasing conversations and involvement of oral health in the Sacramento policy/decision making-spheres, and building oral health into other key coalitions and advocacy agendas (examples include the Healthy CA Fund (State Soda Tax Advocate Partners), #Fight4OurHealth Campaign, Alliance of Boys and Men of Color- Led by PolicyLink, Having Our Say! - Led by CPEHN, CA Immigrant Health Network- Led by CA Immigrant Policy Center and Latino Health Alliance- Led by LCHC and CPCA). Oral Health 2020 investment of $100,800 will be used to support the implementation of a community-oriented oral health priorities plan centered on increasing community advocacy and communications capacity to address systemic oral health change and maintain a strong health justice messaging in all activities, collaborative activities that engage state and local partners, and to leverage expertise of OH2020 Network in development of collateral and communications materials and content focused on achieving oral health equity in California. 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.