Thank you to Central Oregon Health Council (COHC) for issuing a two-year grant of $50,000 for use in 2019-2020 by A Smile for Kids! We’ve entered the 2nd year of the grant period and will ensure that the $25,000 will be used in alignment with the COHC strong effort to lead the following priorities in Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, northern Klamath counties, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs:
· Access to Equitable Preventive Health Care
· Adversity, Trauma and Toxic Stress
· Economic Drivers of Health (housing, living wage, food insecurity, transportation)
· Behavioral Health (Mental Health and Substance Abuse)
In our capacity of funding orthodontic services to under-resourced kids, we are strongly aligned with the first priority, but many of the kids and their families in our program are also affected by adversity, trauma, toxic stress, food insecurity and transportation to name a few.
By connecting with kids through counselors and other professionals, we are given an open door into the life of a child as well as their entire family. This often leads to a ripple effect beyond the kid we are funding braces for, resulting in siblings and parents, foster parents and guardians adopting new health habits and investment of time in education. It’s never only about the kid in front of us, and we feel that COHC understands that and is helping us affect as many families in the community as possible.
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