Why should grassroots and grassmiddles engage for oral
health care? “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go
together.” – African proverb
It’s been a busy spring for our team as we just wrapped up
six meetings in six states (in just three weeks!). During the months of April
and May, DentaQuest Foundation convened partners in the six states of our
Grassroots Engagement Initiative, which launched last year in Arizona,
California, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The grassroots strategy aims to amplify the voice of those most impacted by oral health disparities –people
who are living with tooth and mouth pain, limited access to dental services or
affordable coverage, and other barriers to obtaining good oral health.
These meetings brought together those working at the state
level (like oral health coalitions) – also known as the “grassmiddles” – with
local-level community advocacy organizations – the “grassroots” groups.
DentaQuest Foundation’s grassmiddle partners have been
working in oral health for many years and have a deep understanding of the
policy environment in their states, often in addition to clinical knowledge or
experience. Grassroots organizations, meanwhile, understand the needs of their
communities and are experts at organizing and mobilizing community members to
create change around issues like the environment, racial justice, jobs and more.
Why the Grassroots Engagement Initiative? Within it, these stakeholders
learn from each other’s respective expertise. Together, they can take aligned action
to improve oral health while also respecting and including the voices of those
most impacted by oral health disparities.
These kinds of partnerships only serve to strengthen the
effort of a larger national movement by getting everyone to agree on the
priorities and join together where action is needed to improve oral health.
Illustrating the
power of partnership
One of the Grassroots Engagement Initiative grantees in
California is SCOPE (Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education)
helped bring grassroots and grassmiddle partners to agreement on oral health
change efforts.
SCOPE is a group that first emerged in the early ‘90s in the
midst of the Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict. Staff from
SCOPE facilitated what’s called “power mapping” at each of the six state
meetings.
“Power mapping” asks:
- what are the major issues in a state (for example, in Arizona: lack of adult dental coverage in Medicaid, lack of access to quality oral health care in Native American and other poor communities, and a weak social safety net);
- who are the decision makers that could potentially influence those issues (for example, Governor Ducey and the Arizona legislature); and finally,
- who else might be potential allies or challengers.
Participants then map out where all of these factors and
people stand on the issue. Finally, they strategize on what’s needed to shift
these dynamics in a way that positively impacts oral health in the state. Ultimately,
the resulting power map should be used to track progress by revisiting it
periodically to see how opinions have shifted.
At each state meeting, SCOPE helped participants reach consensus on a draft power map to begin using and measuring against. The agreement resulted
from peer-to-peer learning, as well as collaboration across grassmiddles and
grassroots experience.
Why does this matter?
How will oral health equity improve?
Power mapping can be an excellent complement to the state’s
oral health plan, which is goal-oriented and shows where the state wants to go.
In fact, the power map and community level actors can help inform how to get
there – an element that is improved with grassroots and grassmiddles on the
same page.
Ultimately, it’s crucial that efforts to create change are
in line with one another when facing a problem as significant as poor oral
health. These state meetings seek to encourage all of us to see ways in which
we can work together, and bring our respective strengths to the table, as we
work for a healthier America.