Oral Health for All Hawaii (OHFAH): A Project of the Hawaii Children’s Action Network: Funded by DentaQuest Foundation Oral Health 2020 Initiative
Background:
Hawaii has one of the worst rates of oral health for children and adults in the US. The August 2015 DOH report, “Hawaii Oral Health: Key Findings”, showed significant oral health disparities in Hawaii’s residents relating to income, education, ethnicity, health insurance status, and geographic location. Hawaii’s low-income residents are more likely to experience dental problems and less likely to see a dentist than other United States residents.
To address the chronic and inequitable state of dental health among Hawaii’s citizens, the
Hawaii Children’s Action Network (HCAN) has been funded by the national DentaQuest Foundation to work on incorporating more collaboration and consultation with at-risk populations and stakeholders, leading to innovative, out-of-the-box, and culturally-aware strategies that will improve oral health status for Hawaii’s residents with disparities in oral health status.
The Oral Health for All Hawaii (OHFAH) Project is supporting up to five (5) Community Innovation Awards in oral health outreach, education and information gathering in communities at risk for poor oral health outcomes,to help encourage more direct interest in at-risk communities to become engage to spark change and identify disparities and address them in a meaningful way, with tangible results.
These awards will include ethnic, geographic and population-specific partners to share their wisdom regarding innovative and successful approaches to engage their own respective communities. We are confident that our communities possess both the strengths and capacity to recognize root causes of oral health disparities and to help lead efforts to develop innovative and community-supportive responses to address oral health factors.
Criteria for Applying for a OHFAH Community Innovation Award: The applicant must be:
1. A direct member/members of the community, living and working within the targeted community. Focus is on ethnic disparities and rural and low-income communities with high rates of oral health problems.
2. Part of a larger group effort (does not have to be a non-profit 501-c-3) that seeks to understand and address community needs with community-developed solutions
3. Able to explain in writing and in detail their proposed plan to use the $3,000 Community Innovation Awards funds within one year of award (2018-2019).
4. Willing to share knowledge/information any community-based event and all activities developed and initiated by the project at least every 6 months
5. Willing to share proposed community project ideas and challenges with other similarly-funded projects.
6. Has at least 2 responsible project leads/points of contact with phone and email addresses.
For more information, please contact: OHFAH Disparities Director, Nancy Partika, via email at: <nantika@hawaii.edu>