The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has announced four Social Innovation Fund grants totaling $1,000,000 to improve access to health services, reduce health risks and disparities, and promote health equity in Kentucky communities.  Home of the Innocents is one of the four recipients and has received $250,000 to establish a dental clinic at the newly-opened interdisciplinary Hockensmith Pediatric Assessment Center.

The program will provide dental services to children in state care, children with special health care needs, and other children and families served by the Home and its partner agencies. The clinic will be a specialty teaching site for dental professionals and residents from the University of Louisville School of Dentistry. The Home projects that it will serve more than 3,500 children annually through the new Pediatric Assessment Center. Comprehensive dental services will be available through the clinic, which is expected to increase access to dental care and improve oral health outcomes for the service population.

“These initiatives are some of the first in the country to use SIF grants to increase access to health services in rural areas, giving us the opportunity to promote lasting change where the need is most critical,” said Susan Zepeda, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. “The grant recipients each demonstrated innovative responses tailored to meet specific health care challenges in their communities.”