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Hometown Partnerships for Oral Health

Do You —

Want to help improve the health of your community? Desire to Work in Your Community’s Health Center? Aspire to be a dentist?

If you answered “yes,” then Hometown Partnerships for Oral Health may be for you!

The Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health was started in response to requests from Community Health Centers (CHC) and other safety net providers. The mission of the school is to educate caring, technologically adept dentists who become community and educational leaders serving those in need. The purpose of Hometown is to help ASDOH meet the needs of CHC by attracting and training dedicated, motivated, and qualified community-minded dentists. This information is designed to help you discover how you might become a Hometown endorsed applicant.

Hometown Applicants are those who have:

* Located a Community Health Center to stay involved with
* Developed relationships with CHC staff and leadership
* Learned about the working environment of a CHC
* Gained valuable volunteer or work experience
* Gained ASDOH application endorsement from a CHC leader

A Hometown endorsement lets the dental school know which applicants Community Health Centers believe could become the compassionate community-minded healers they would like to employ. If you are interested in seeking a Hometown endorsement, visit the Bureau of Primary Health Care web page to identify a Community Health Center to connect with as a volunteer or employee. In this way, you can learn about that health center’s approach for improving community health, develop health center relationships, and (hopefully) gain the endorsement from that CHC.

A Community Health Center leader can advocate for your acceptance into the dental school by sending a Hometown endorsement letter to Gary Cloud (address below). Hometown letters of endorsement do not replace the regular application process. Hometown endorsement letters parallel the regular application process - a process that requires its own letters of support.

What is a Community Health Center?

CHC Mission
To promote the provision of high-quality, comprehensive healthcare that is accessible, coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, and community directed for all under served populations.

CHC Service
Community, Migrant and Homeless Health Centers are not-for-profit providers of healthcare to America’s poor and medically under served. Health centers serve the working poor and the uninsured in the nation’s neediest intercity, suburban, and rural communities. Innovative CHC programs in primary and preventive care serve 17 million people through 6,000 delivery sites.

The innovative and successful CHC model has been heralded as a template for this nations heath care system. The CHC model integrates oral health into a comprehensive primary care approach. The nation, however, faces a shortage of dentists, and Health Center communities are especially hard hit by this lack of dental and oral healthcare. CHCs are working to address the growing oral health crisis in their communities by expanding dental facilities and hiring dentists, and ASDOH is working with the CHCs to help alleviate that crisis.

Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health
The Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health is an accredited, private, non-profit dental school offering an innovative dental education curriculum that includes a community health point of view where students serve in Community Health Center settings. In addition, dental student course-work in the four-year program includes a certificate in public health management allowing graduates an inroad to obtaining a master in public health (MPH). Students also have the opportunity to learn about community leadership, Community Health Centers’ organizational structure and governance, under served population outreach strategies, and health policy development.

Community

Hometown Partnerships for Oral Health

Do You —

Hometown Applicants are those who have:

What is a Community Health Center?

More information and related links