On a warm July morning, we gathered over 35 of our partner agencies to celebrate our summer grant cycle. The gathering was held at People’s Community Clinic, which showcased their new dental van, awarded to them by St. David’s Foundation, which enables them to now offer dental care in addition to their full range of services. Dr. Carlos Diaz, director of People’s Dental Services, spoke to the van’s impact on patients, saying “Dentistry is not a luxury, it is a necessity, which is why I’m so happy this program will offer full-service dental care to patients regardless of their ability to pay.”
That morning, we announced $5M in funding to organizations providing much needed free and low-cost dental care to our community. With these grants, we hope to alleviate the need of the tens of thousands of Central Texas adults who either can’t afford dental care, can’t access it because of transportation barriers, or don’t visit a dentist because affordable clinics simply don’t exist in their community.
In addition to the funding for dental services, we awarded more than $30 million in grants across our five county area. Other summer grant recipients included Brighter Bites, who is expanding their healthy eating program to other communities; Integral Care, who received $1.6 million in support of the Herman Center, an emergency mental health crisis center; and the UT School of Social Work, which received $400,000 to expand the Black Mamas Community Collective, focused on improving maternal health of black mothers in Central Texas.
This story was published as part of the August 2019 St. David’s Foundation’s newsletter, The 411. View the full newsletter here.
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