G-2101-16630

Poverty Action is a grassroots community organizing and advocacy organization for policy solutions for low income folks in Washington.

Poverty Action conducts listening sessions annually across the state to hear from low-income and community members of color; a running theme of feedback sessions is that access to dental care is a huge challenge for Medicaid recipients in the state. Specifically, Poverty Action has identified that people struggle to find a dentist who takes Medicaid, that those dentists are not taking new Medicaid patients, or that there are simply not enough dentists in their local community.

Poverty Action is seeking funding though the Advancing Equity through Oral Health Fund, under the Strengthen Community Voice and State Advocacy Sub-Program. With funding in 2021, Poverty Action will advocate for the expansion of dental therapy in WA, in order to increase access to dental care for low-income communities and communities of color. Poverty Action will build upon their campaign first started in 2010, with the intention to increase campaign capacity, bolstering legislative support for dental therapy, and developing an equity-based dental therapy bill to put forth to legislature. People with low incomes and people of color will play leading roles in shaping the campaign through storytelling. The legislative session in WA is currently ongoing. If the dental therapy bill is not passed before the legislative session closes, Poverty Action will convene a new task force in support of dental therapy to keep momentum.

Poverty Action demonstrates a high level of alignment with DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement’s priority of community voice, specifically as it shapes state policy.