Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress
2501 14th Ave. South
Escanaba, MI
United States
UPCAP has been focused on development of the human, social, and community resources of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and improving the lives of its residents since 1961. In August of 2020, UPCAP created its Upper Peninsula Veterans Program and became the fiduciary for the Upper Peninsula Veterans Community Action Team (U.P. VCAT). This regional collaborative of veteran service providers has been collectively serving veterans across the region since 2015.
A top priority of this grant is to engage veteran-serving coalitions/stakeholder groups to establish partnerships for advancing oral health access. Community forums will enable UPCAP to gather feedback on experiences, perspectives, and suggestions for improving systems and programming for veterans. UPCAP will also utilize phone surveys through local 2-1-1 services with individual veterans, service members, and family/caregivers, and offer incentives for their responses (gas cards). Information gathered will be utilized to develop and distribute communications among media outlets regarding systemic issues impacting veteran oral health. A final report will be created to inform strategy and improve oral health access and programming.
While Michigan has recently expanded its dental programming for Medicaid participants, most dental providers in this 15-county region do not participate, which severely limits the effectiveness of this expansion. This, along with the high costs of traditional dental care, has left many veterans delaying or not pursuing the care they need. UPCAP is working to move towards proactive oral health care for veterans and creating a network of support across the region for all veterans seeking access to dental services.
UPCAP is requesting $125,000 for this work, which is less than 1% of the organization’s overall budget. $50,000 will go toward staff, $60,000 toward facilitating community forums (venue, marketing, meals), and incentives for survey completion (gas cards), while the remainder will help with indirect funds.
This proposal is one of ten selected finalists for the Expanding Access and Equity for Veterans Oral Health RFP.