R-2404-20847

For over 50 years, Well Child Center (WCC) has been a leader in the provision of health and social services for low-income families and uninsured, at-risk children and families living in Kane County, IL. WCC is committed to improving the lives of women, children and families through education, counseling, services, and advocacy in the areas of nutrition and oral health, respectively. WCC is grounded in one primary goal—to create and maintain broad-based community partnerships to help all children thrive, and to build, strengthen, and sustain individual family and community life.

With support from this grant, WCC will convene a Community of Practice (COP) to build/enhance relationships focused on school-based and school-linked oral health services. The COP will include community organizations/partners, representatives from the local school district family/community engagement and health services teams, and community representatives. The COP will provide an opportunity for those passionate about oral health care for school-age children to enhance access to care, reduce disparities, and address inequities in the oral health space by connecting key stakeholders. A subset of the COP—including staff and consultants—will serve as an advisory committee to the initiative.

WCC will launch a pilot project focused on increasing completion of dental exam school requirements before the first day of school for kindergarten, 2nd and 6th grades. The COP will work with the local school district's home visiting program (children 3-5 years of age) and an elementary school to implement the pilot. The pilot also will include an educational component carefully designed/implemented by the COP, staff, consultants, and—most importantly—community representatives.

Well Child Center is requesting $125,000 for this work, which is 5% of the organization’s overall budget. $87,000 is for consultants and dentist champions, about $21,000 for staff time, and just over $5,000 for conference fees/travel and supplies. The remainder will go toward indirect expenses.

This proposal is one of ten selected finalists for the School-Based and School-Linked Initiatives to Improve Oral Health RFP.