1702-12974

Michigan: Support to the Voices of Detroit Initiative (VODI) to act as a lead convener in the Detroit community as part of the Grassroots Engagement Strategy. As a community-based coalition of stakeholders, VODI is a safety net healthcare coalition that seeks to provide a voice for the uninsured while investing in community partnerships that improve access to healthcare. Throughout the grant year VODI worked to establish a robust, consumer-oriented oral health network in greater Detroit focused on improving oral health systemically for high needs populations. Using a partnership sub-grant model VODI offered resources to three CBOs to increase the project’s reach into the community in deep and authentically engaging ways. These core partner organizations included Black Family Development, Matrix Human Services, and Detroit Community Solutions, each of which serve at risk, high needs populations in greater Detroit that were critical for developing local leadership and driving VODI’s implementation plan priorities. One major accomplished in 2015 was successfully advancing the Healthy Kids Dental (HKD) program to full implementation throughout the state, previously all but three counties (including Wayne County encompassing the City of Detroit) had implemented the state subsidized program within Medicaid allowing for greater coverage and reimbursement rates for children oral health services up to age 18. While serving as a backbone entity for the local oral health network, and in partnership with the Michigan Oral Health Coalition, VODI interfaced with state legislators, particularly those with influence on the legislature’s appropriations committee. Efforts resulted in the protection and expansion of Healthy Kids Dental to the remaining three Michigan Counties (the three largest counties in the state). In 2017/18, the VODI Community-Driven Oral Health Plan is designed to address five fundamental areas of oral health: 1) Education and Critical Awareness Building; 2) Oral Health Integration; 3) Medical/Dental Access; 4) Health Equity and Social Determinants; and 5) Oral Health Financing and Costs. For all of VODI’s identified community-driven priorities, they plan to leverage implementation efforts to identify and ultimately advance policy opportunities that will have lasting impact beyond the scope of the Oral Health 2020 project. $100,790 will be used to support VODI’s staff/personnel time to oversee network development, travel and meeting expenses, support in-person and remote convenings, contracted services for meeting facilitation, and sub-grants to grassroots/CBO partner organizations. 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.