Children's Action Alliance
3030 N. 3rd Street, Ste 760
PHOENIX, AZ
United States
Children’s Action Alliance (CAA) is an organization that identifies and eliminates barriers to the well-being of children and families and creates opportunities through partnerships and policy solutions. CAA has been the fiscal sponsor for the Arizona Oral Health Coalition (ACOHZ) since 2019.
CareQuest Institute has supported CAA since 2015, supporting work related to children’s oral health, coalition-building and advocacy for a Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit in Arizona. CAA has been an effective partner in coalition-building and co-developing data reports with the Analytics & Data Insights team to advocate for expansion of benefits in the state of AZ.
The areas of work within the proposal are organized within two focus areas: advocacy and continuing education within the oral health field. Within this funding year, the largest advocacy priority of CAA and AZOHC will be grow its “oral health is essential” campaign. This serves as a platform for advocacy for the reinstatement of comprehensive dental benefits in Medicaid. A notable success of the campaign within this recent funding year was garnering significant traction for a preventative dental benefit bill for Medicaid. Among smaller advocacy areas of focus, CAA and AZOHC will support expanded capacity for the oral health workforce by supporting the development of dental therapy programs in local universities, supporting partners’ work on licensing and reimbursement of dental therapists, and advocating for reimbursement of teledentistry.
Related to continuing education for the oral health field, CAA and AZOHC will work with local universities with AT-Still University (ATSU) and Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH) to include social determinant of health factors and health equity training within dental school curriculums. This would allow students to be better prepared to provide SDOH screenings and referrals within AZ’s Medicaid closed-loop referral system. Lastly in this area, CAA and AZOHC will provide legislative and advocacy 101 training to dental hygiene and dental programs to promote student participation in oral health advocacy campaign efforts.
Underpinning all these activities is a strategic planning process happening among CAA and AZOHC to clearly map and formalize each organization’s roles and responsibilities, and a plan moving forward that increases the AZOHC’s community organization members and feedback loops with these organizations. The latter activity will build upon a successful story collection project supporting Medicaid dental benefit advocacy in 2022 and expand engagement by building a community advocacy “academy.” CAA and AZOHC will also intentionally engage new organizations representing historically marginalized populations.
The budget for this proposal is $178,591. Over $106,000 is allocated toward staff time for the deliverables of the project. $22,000 of the budget is allocated for convening and meeting expenses for AZOHC and local partners. Approximately $8,000 of the budget is related to communications expenses. Lastly, $18,000 is delineated within the budget for the execution of an Advocacy Day at the AZ state house for AZOHC and partners. This request represents 5% of the organization’s overall budget. The project work is also supported by $25,000 in match funding from Children’s Action Alliance and funders outside of CareQuest Institute, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.