Delta Dental of Illinois Grants Over $60,000 to Seven Community Service Organizations
Published 12-26-07
Submitted by Delta Dental of Illinois
LISLE, IL "“ December 26, 2007 "“ Seven community service organizations throughout Illinois will begin the New Year on a positive note as recipients of grants from Delta Dental of Illinois.
The seven grants, for a total of $62,400, are intended to help promote oral health education and access to care. DDIL makes grants three times a year; this round is the last for 2007.
The oral health grants are a key component of Delta Dental of Illinois' community benefit program. Part of Delta Dental of Illinois' mission is to improve the oral health of the communities it serves. As such, Delta Dental of Illinois supports organizations and projects that help improve oral health access or promote oral health education in the state.
Recipients of the Delta Dental of Illinois grants include:
The Infant Welfare Society of Chicago received a $7,500 grant to support ongoing pediatric dentistry services for the Hispanic and Polish immigrant communities on the Northwest side of Chicago. The Infant Welfare Society successfully manages the challenges of the target population by responding to the cultural and linguistic needs of their patients and will provide 16,000 oral health visits in the current fiscal year. The agency provides comprehensive oral health care for children, including restorative and advanced pediatric dental care often not available elsewhere.
Adams County Health Department "“ Community Dental Clinic in Quincy received a $10,000 grant to increase access to care. The clinic provides a full array of dental services, including endodontic, oral surgery, dentures and orthodontia, and expects to serve 9,000 eligible adults and children.
DuPage County Health Department in Wheaton was granted $8,000 to fund full-service dental care to low-income residents in the county who use the mobile dentistry unit called the Smile Squad. The Smile Squad provides exams, pulpotomies, crowns and extractions during visits to schools, neighborhood resource centers and county health centers and serves 200 patients each month in targeted areas of the county.
Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago received an $8,500 grant for its Division of Dentistry to purchase additional intra-oral cameras. These cameras will help both the dental patients and the pediatric dental residents at the hospital. They will be used to allow patients and parents to view dental problems as the dentist sees them. Working together, the dentist and patient are better able to identify a problem and eradicate it. The Division of Dentistry serves 450 patients a month from throughout the Chicago area.
Walk in Ministry of Hope in Downers Grove was granted $8,400 to establish an immediate needs fund for oral health issues and to supplement this service with a well-established referral system to social service agencies that can provide more direct help with specific situations. The organization of volunteers provides immediate and long-term assistance to the working poor, unemployed and homeless. The ministry collaborates with local churches, businesses and other non-profit community agencies. This grant will allow them to add oral health support, as needed; to the 2,000 clients they serve annually.
St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center in Chicago received a grant of $10,000 to serve the children of Englewood in a dental clinic that opened in January of 2007. This is one of the neediest and least served populations in the state. The clinic expects to serve 1,200 people in this, its first year, and already has expanded its staff.
Alivio Medical Center in Chicago was granted $10,000 to assist with a new bilingual, bicultural dental clinic committed to providing access to quality, cost-effective dental care to the Latino community in the Pilsen neighborhood. The patients who receive services at Alivio's dental clinic have historically not received any type of healthcare due to language and cultural barriers and little awareness of available resources. An estimated 1,400 children will be served by the dental clinic.
"Part of Delta Dental of Illinois' mission is to continually seek ways for residents of Illinois to have access to quality oral health care and education," said Robert Dennison, D.M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Delta Dental of Illinois. "Through our grant program we are able to assist a number of community-focused organizations in their missions to provide beneficial health programs for the entire state. We are honored to be part of this joint, positive endeavor."
Delta Dental of Illinois (DDIL) is a not-for-profit dental service corporation specializing in providing comprehensive, easy-to-use and cost-effective benefits to over one million employees and family members in more than 3,200 employee groups throughout Illinois. Based in Lisle, Ill., DDIL offers an array of extensive nationwide network-based managed fee-for-service, PPO and dental HMO plans.
Delta Dental of Illinois
Delta Dental of Illinois
Delta Dental of Illinois is a not-for-profit dental service corporation that administers and underwrites easy-to-use and cost-effective dental benefit plans for employers based in Illinois. Delta Dental of Illinois has been offering dental benefit programs to Illinois employers since 1967. Delta Dental of Illinois offers an array of plans for Illinois-based employers with two or more enrolled employees and covers employees nationwide.
Delta Dental of Illinois is one of 39 independently operated member companies of the Delta Dental Plans Association. Delta Dental is by far the largest and most experienced dental benefits carrier in the country-larger than the #2 and #3 carriers combined. Delta Dental member companies cover more than 51 million of the estimated 170 million people who have dental insurance in 93,000 groups in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
