In this week’s episode of the Protecting our Public Health Podcast, Melissa Freeman, Director of Strategic Projects at the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), joins Sharity to share her view on dental public health with a focus from a policy advocacy and philanthropic perspective.
Episode Highlights:
- Melissa’s professional history as it pertains to her current role
- The structure and role of the OCF
- The three prongs of the OCF’s 5-year children’s dental health initiative
- Some of OCF’s other initiatives over the years
- The role of policy advocacy and philanthropy in organized dentistry
Quotes:
“We ended up funding 15 different organizations to run these programs, and over 5 years were able to have these programs serve schools in 22 of Oregon’s 36 counties.”
“It’s not as easy as we would have hoped!”
“Pretty quickly, we determined that we should fund research projects and that we needed more leadership at the state level.”
“Philanthropy can help go to where the students are, or the adults are…and try to connect them back to a dentist’s office.”
“How can we best meet the needs of our various populations?”
“Reach out to the providers – they often know what they need help with and don’t always have the resources.”
Links:
More Protecting our Public Health Podcast Episodes:https://ataleoftwohygienists.com/protectingourpublichealth/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel One homepage:
http://dentalpodcastnetworkchannelone.otcpn.libsynpro.com/
The Dental Podcast Network Channel Two homepage:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dental-podcast-networks-channel-two/id1478530429
Oregon Community Foundation homepage: https://oregoncf.org/
Melissa’s email: mfreeman@oregoncf.org
