G-2108-17157

Alabama Arise (Arise) is a statewide, member-led organization that seeks to advance public policies to improve the lives of Alabamians who are marginalized by poverty.

Alabama Arise has requested funding to engage in four priority activities. First, Arise will advocate for an expansion of Medicaid in the state of Alabama, which currently has no adult dental benefit. In their advocacy, Arise will highlight the stories of individuals directly impacted by Alabama’s restrictive coverage requirements. If successful in their advocacy, 340,000 individuals will be newly eligible to enroll in Medicaid.

Arise’s second activity will be around assessing health disparities within the Alabama health coverage system. Arise will perform a landscape scan to determine the structural barriers to accessing care in Alabama.

The third pillar of this work is to further develop consumer engagement structures within Alabama’s Coordinated Health Networks through onboarding of dedicated staff, which will allow the organization to provide technical assistance, training, and advocacy capacity building for consumer representatives. Within year one, 16 consumer advocates will be recruited and trained to advance data-driven, equitable healthcare policies for low-income adults.

Lastly, Alabama Arise plans to leverage the intrinsic consumer capacity-building elements of this work to lay the groundwork for future oral health care policy. Within the grant period, Arise intends to educate consumer advocates around the need for comprehensive oral health care, release an accessible report on care quality in oral health, and have targeted conversations with Alabama’s new Medicaid Medical Director around productive policy change to advance oral health in Alabama.

For CareQuest Institute, this proposal represents an opportunity to assist in the build of Medicaid advocacy infrastructure in Alabama, and ultimately, a cohort of informed oral health policy advocates and an organization with enhanced ability to advocate for a dental benefit. The proposal is aligned with many of the cross-cutting strategies especially as it relates to engagement with community to develop policy priorities, focused on low-wealth and BIPOC communities.

Most of the budget is allocated toward staff time for a Health Policy Analyst, Project Director and Organizing team lead. The remainder of the budget is allocated toward travel and an organizing contactor. This request for $150,000 represents less than 1% of the current organizational budget.