dqf2019077

California: This investment supports Children Now to engage and partner with community stakeholders throughout Los Angeles to build the capacity of public health sites to implement the pediatric oral health action plan, build support for the restoration of the California Children’s Dental Disease Prevention Program, and develop an effective dental referral process that ensures children have access to oral health care, education, and prevention. Children Now will explore financing mechanisms for public health programs that will promote their sustainability, leverage its networks to research and develop models implemented in other states to bridge early childhood and school-based systems together, and engage primary care providers in oral health education and prevention. Through this collaborative approach, Children Now and its partners will help to strengthen the broader community infrastructure to support the inclusion of oral health in statewide policy, public health program delivery, and coordinated care practices. $200,000 will be used to support personnel time, communications, travel, meeting expenses, and consultant expenses that contribute to the implementation of this project. This proposal aligns with the Oral Health 2020 Goal 4 of eradicating dental disease in children and the target of having 75% of children reach age 5 without a cavity.