G-2306-18355

The Michigan Oral Health Coalition (MOHC) works to create a large, interconnected network of national, state and local advocates dedicated to working collaboratively on advocacy, education and awareness of oral health.

CareQuest Institute has provided MOHC with over $3M since 2011. A large portion of these funds was distributed across the state to subgrantees as part of the Midwest Oral Health Collaborative from 2014-2019. In recent funding years, MOHC has received grants for successful administrative advocacy around the structure and funding of the state's Medicaid adult dental benefit, and State Oral Health Plan development and implementation.

In 2022, MOHC's work began to address the oral health workforce shortage in Michigan. Over the course of the year, MOHC and its Local Coalition partners hosted targeted community conversations and listening sessions within their Dental Economic Workgroup. These conversations were structured around the impacts of the existing workforce on oral health, and the impacts of oral health on the overall workforce in Michigan. These groups also served as a preliminary sounding board for proposed community solutions for the workforce issues across the state. Within their 2023 proposal, MOHC is seeking funding to expand on the information gathered and develop detailed workforce assessments at the local level, and detailed workforce expansion plans for each Local Oral Health Coalition catchment area. These plans will continue to be informed by community-level members within the Local Coalitions and will also inform MOHC’s 2024 Oral health Policy Agenda, which is another deliverable of this grant.

At the same time, Michigan Oral Health Coalition will monitor and track the utilization of recently expanded Medicaid benefit services, as well as overall oral health outcomes for the state of Michigan within a detailed data dashboard. Lastly, to ensure a health and racial equity lens within this work, MOHC will lead the group of Local Oral Health Coalitions and other advocates in DEI & implicit bias training over the course of the grant period.

This proposal was originally submitted with a budget of $200,000, which represented a $50,000 increase over MOHC's 2022 grant from CareQuest Institute and 66% of the organization's overall budget. Philanthropy staff had a clear conversation with MOHC staff to indicate that this percentage of the organization's overall budget is not within CareQuest Institute's realm of comfort, and also to emphasize that fiscal sustainability planning should be a priority for MOHC in the grant year. This feedback was well-taken, and MOHC staff indicated they will be in touch with CareQuest Institute as they are applying for other funding sources in order to seek letters of support. Additionally, CareQuest Institute Philanthropy will seek out opportunities to highlight MOHC's funded work through Marketing & Communications, in order to support the development of collateral that will be appealing to other funders. The final recommended amount for this grant is $150,000, which is 49% of MOHC's overall budget.