G-1904-15045

This investment supports Community Catalyst to continue to strengthen consumer advocacy at the national, state, and Network level; support the implementation of the Grassroots Engagement strategy; and promote shared learning about grassroots engagement within OPEN and beyond. Their focus will shift from the intensive 1:1 technical assistance of the past two years in two Grassroots Lead states to broader support for all the Grassroots Lead Organizations (GLO) and the Oral Health Progress and Equity Network overall. This will include cultivating cross-network and GLO-to-GLO information and strategy sharing to grow collective oral health advocacy capacity. Specifically, the team will establish and execute a technical assistance plan in collaboration with grassroots partners in Florida; identify, test, and disseminate lessons learned from, with, and to grassroots partners and other stakeholders, including funders; and participate in convenings, Network response teams, and other OPEN meetings. $155,000 will help support project/TA staffing, travel for Community Catalyst staff within the target states, and convening and teleconferencing capacity necessary to implement the project. The proposal primarily aligns with the Oral Health 2020 goal to improve the public perception of the value of oral health to overall health and a target that oral health is increasingly included in health dialogue and public policy.