Project Grant UK753023

This Project Grant award of $850,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under the Maternal and Child Health Federal Consolidated Programs (CFDA 93.110) will fund the "Transforming Oral Health for Communities (TOHC)" initiative led by Health Center Network Of New York, Inc. (doing business as Healthefficient). The goal of this 4-year project is to improve access to preventive oral healthcare and oral health equity for pregnant women and infants in underserved communities in New York. Key objectives include enhancing state-level policies and scopes of practice to increase integrated preventive oral health services, increasing oral health awareness among health organizations through literacy training and outreach, implementing state-level oral health surveillance enhancements, and deploying an evidence-based model of care to integrate preventive oral health services into primary care at participating community health centers. The project will utilize a learning collaborative approach to build the competencies of community health workers and health centers in delivering evidence-based oral health practices, communication, interprofessional collaboration, and health IT integration.