SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Dental Society Foundation recently announced the winners of the 2020 Community Grant Awards. The grant program attracted the interest of 30 worthwhile organizations that are actively working to expand access to oral health care services to needy individuals around the state. This year $75,000 in grant monies were awarded to ten organizations for projects designed to provide access to dental care and increase oral health awareness and education.
“We received applications from many excellent programs seeking grant funds this year making the challenge to select just a few winners from so many worthy initiatives considerably difficult,” emphasized ISDS Foundation Board President Dr. Susan Bishop.
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Applications were evaluated according to the following guidelines:
• Congruence of the project to the mission of the ISDS Foundation
• Potential for, or history of, continuous program operations
• An increase in oral health awareness among those reached by the project
• Potential impact on a target community or audience
• Potential enhanced efficiency by which oral health services are delivered
After careful review, the grant review committee selected the following winners:
Robert E. Rada, DDS ($4,900): The grant will be used to purchase a monitor that would allow increased capacity, utilization of additional anesthesia providers, educate dental students and provide high quality care to their patients with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
McLean County Community Health Care Clinic ($5,000): Grant funding will allow the clinic to expand its dental coordinator’s hours in addition to purchasing additional supplies and materials to increase scheduling capacity. This will result in an estimated 200 additional appointments for uninsured individuals in McLean county.
Mobile Care Chicago ($5,000): The grant will provide comprehensive dental care to more than 5,000 low income children in Chicago and the Chicagoland area. Many of these children lack insurance. Last school year, more than 37% of patient visits lacked any dental insurance. The Mobile Dental Program uses innovative mobile clinics to reach, treat, and teach children who lack access to traditional dental care providers..
Foster Family Resource Center of Southern IL ($10,000): The grant will allow the center to continue providing vulnerable patients an opportunity to get dental care they need and receive it close to home, expanding access to dental care for foster children.
Hult Center for Healthy Living ($2,600): Funds will be used to provide 2,625 low-income, at-risk elementary students with oral health and nutrition education to help children develop lifelong healthy dental habits and overall health throughout the Peoria Tri-County area.
Dental Lifeline Network of Illinois ($7,500): The grant will assist in providing 600 Illinoisans with disabilities, or who are elderly or medically fragile and unable to afford or otherwise access dental treatment, pro bono dental care that restores their oral health and frees them from dental disease.
Tri City Health Partnership ($10,000): Grant funding will provide care for low-income, uninsured residents of Central Kane County
SIU School of Dental Medicine ($10,000): The grant will expand their Special Dental Care Needs Program, allowing them to serve more children than they can presently. The care will be performed in a new Medical Operating Suite in their Advanced Care Clinic.
SIU Center for Family Medicine ($10,000): Funds will expand dental services within their clinic to existing patients as well as children in the community who may not currently be receiving any dental care. Their clinic currently serves all of the local Head Start children, area group home residents, nursing home residents, local veterans, and uninsured patients.
Well Child Center ($10,000): Grant money will provide support to their Well Child Center’s Pediatric Dental Clinic and First Tooth Visit Program. They provide comprehensive, preventative and restorative dental care for low-income children at low or no-cost.
Applications for the next round of grants will be available in the spring of 2021. The ISDS Foundation Community Grants initiative, which began in 2006, is made possible because of the generous support of Illinois dentists and other ISDS Foundation donors.
