2025 Community Report

The expansion and protection of access to fluoridated water at the tap remains a priority. Arcora is honored to work with strong community advocates to respond to fluoridation rollback attempts throughout the state. In Lynden, Jonathan Henry, DMD, and Lynnette Ondeck, RN, recruited fellow supporters to participate in advocacy activities such as writing letters and speaking to their city council. To thank them for their efforts, we awarded them 2024 Oral Health Hero Awards. Local advocates in Lynden and in communities across the state are strong voices in support of this cost-effective and equitable way to prevent tooth decay for people of all ages and backgrounds. We are grateful for all our community partners engaged in this work.

“All we can do is educate… Talk to your politicians. Talk to your community leaders. Don’t be afraid. It takes some courage. You have to put yourself out there.”

-Jonathan Henry, DMD, Associate Dental Director at UnityCare NW and Fluoridation Advocate

At the state level, Arcora and our partners secured $100,000 in the 2024 supplemental state operating budget for a community water fluoridation work group. The group will review findings from the state’s 2023 oral health equity assessment to develop recommendations on how to partner with communities to address oral health disparities and provide education about community water fluoridation and other oral health measures. The group’s findings are due to the legislature in June of 2025.

Learn more about community water fluoridation in Washington state at Water Fluoridation for a Healthy Washington. To watch the Oral Health Hero Award speeches and see other moments from our 2024 partner and alumni event, go to our event page.

We were honored to receive a Fluoridation Special Merit Award at the National Oral Health Conference in St. Louis. The nomination highlighted Arcora as a “major force in advocating for legislative support for fluoridation in Washington state.” The nomination also pointed to our leadership on HB 1251—which the 2023 legislature passed and became law. It requires at least a 90-day public notice before a decision to start or stop fluoridation. This is a joint award from the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, American Dental Association, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Arcora staff attended the conference to receive the award and organized a reception there for our national partners.

More than 7 years ago, Arcora launched the Local Impact Network (LIN) initiative. The aim was to enlist community wisdom and expertise to unlock communities’ health potential. In that time, community-based organizations, health care providers, local health jurisdictions, and others have come on board to help address the most pressing health issues in their communities. We provide funding, technical assistance, and training to our LIN partners who blend resources to improve oral and overall health opportunities for people who need them most. Our 3 LINs—North Sound (Island, San Juan, Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties), Pierce County, and Smile Spokane—have evolved to reflect the individual communities they serve and to meet their unique needs. The LINs are examples of what community engagement looks like.

Pierce County LIN Dental Resource Days

The Pierce County LIN continues to have success with their dental resource days. This free service connects people to dental care. The Sumner Community Food Bank has collaborated with LIN partners—including MultiCare, Lindquist Dental, SeaMar, and Medical Teams International—to:

• Increase adults served by 30% from 2023 through 2024.
• Increase individuals served by 15% from 2023 through 2024.
• Deliver care, through Lindquist Dental, to 88 children in 2024.
• Provide 340 free procedures (oral health exams, extractions, fillings, sealants, and fluoride varnishes) valued at nearly $40,000 in 2024.

The dental resource days also connect people to DentistLink—the free dental referral service fully funded by Arcora and Health Care Authority that connects people with Apple Health (Medicaid) or no insurance to care. Dental resource days have become a trusted community resource. In 2025, LIN partners look forward to expanding access, reaching more community members, and strengthening partnerships in Pierce County.

Participatory Budgeting Empowers Smile Spokane Members

Established in 2015, Smile Spokane is the only LIN that uses participatory budgeting to empower members in allocating Arcora anchor strategy funds for oral health initiatives. Anchor strategies are activities—like care coordination, sealants, and medical-dental integration—partners identify that are best suited to meet their communities’ health needs. In partnership with Spokane Regional Health District, LIN members evaluate community-based organizations’ funding needs, collaboratively review proposals, and vote on funds distribution through inclusive decision-making. This process has helped organizations integrate LIN projects into their budgets, reducing reliance on external funding.

For example, Smile Spokane members Aging and Long-Term Care of Eastern Washington (ALTCEW) and the Eastern Washington University Dental Hygiene Clinic (EWUDHC) have collaborated on:

• EWUDHC student-led oral health training for Meals on Wheels participants.
• An EWUDHC student-produced video series on nutrition and oral health for older adults.
• ALTCEW referrals to EWUDHC.

This partnership, powered by participatory budgeting, showcases how organizations leverage their own resources for sustainability and lasting impact. As Smile Spokane expands in 2025, it looks forward to engaging new partners and reaching more communities.

LIN Learning Collaborative

Our learning collaboratives are just one way we support the individual and collective efforts of our LINs. LIN leadership and Arcora staff gathered to share knowledge, support one another, and to contribute to the cross-LIN evaluation. Key themes that emerged focused on community engagement, equity, systems and systems change, LIN infrastructure—in particular, the importance of maintaining network vitality through staff turnover and ensuring projects align with broader network-building efforts—and future strategies and opportunities.

“I really appreciated the open, honest communication about wins and struggles. It was awesome all the way around!”

-April Olsen, SeaMar Community Health Centers health center administrator and Pierce County LIN chair

What’s next for the LINs? Smile Spokane and Pierce County will embark on a cross-LIN learning series to promote knowledge-sharing and collaboration across regions. Arcora will continue to collaborate with the North Sound LIN on their new Oral Health Community of Practice to reinforce our long-term commitment to communities and community-driven strategies to advance oral health equity.

In work and in life, we are all better when we work together! That’s certainly the case in Northwest Washington, where 5 passionate Access to Baby and Child Dentistry (ABCD) coordinators connected through our North Sound Local Impact Network. The coordinator role involves outreach to organizations where Apple Health-eligible (Medicaid) children receive services to:

Recognizing the power of collective impact, the North Sound coordinators launched a collaborative that’s working to ensure every baby and child in the region has access to high quality oral health care where and when they need it. They worked together to develop a stronger, more accessible ABCD support system for families. Now, collaborative members focus on reaching underserved communities with innovative and culturally responsive outreach strategies, working with medical teams that deliver MouthMatters oral health services to provide dental referrals, and ensuring families understand the critical link between early dental care and long-term health. As they work side by side, they can do together what they can’t do alone—share resources, ideas, and strategies—to create lasting change in children’s oral health across the region. Coordinators in other regions have expressed interest in incorporating the collaborative’s model into their work.

Tooth decay remains the number one chronic childhood disease. Access to Baby and Child Dentistry (ABCD) connects Apple Health (Medicaid) eligible children from birth up to age 6 and children with special health care needs through age 12 with specially-trained dentists in their communities. The focus is on tooth decay prevention and educating parents to take good care of their children’s teeth. ABCD is a public-private partnership that includes Arcora Foundation, Washington State Health Care Authority, the UW School of Dentistry, the Washington State Dental Association, providers, and others.

Because the mouth is part of the body, it takes dental and medical teams to increase access to care and support good oral health from an early age. It’s a lesson students at the UW schools of medicine and dentistry are embracing. They partnered with Arcora and Harvard University’s 100 Million Mouth’s initiative to integrate oral health into the school of medicine’s curriculum. MouthMatters collaborated with UW dental students and dental and medical faculty to teach medical students to deliver oral health services during well-child and other exams. The MouthMatters training prepares medical students to graduate ready to address their young patients’ oral health needs with a focus on prevention and oral health education. Last year, 140 medical students participated and provided rave reviews about the curriculum. One student shared appreciation for “the opportunity we have to practice clinical skills in a low-risk environment. I…will carry this knowledge and a tiny bit more confidence with me into rotations.” The partnership continues in 2025, with a vision of all medical students receiving oral health education as part of their professional training. This interprofessional initiative is expanding to other health training programs across the state.

MouthMatters is a systems approach to help medical providers successfully integrate preventive oral health services into well-child visits. MouthMatters trains and supports medical providers to offer these services.

In 2024, Arcora provided more than $3.5 million in oral health equity investments to support:

• 18 Oral Health Impact grants—which increase access to culturally responsive care, more water (preferably fluoridated) consumption, and healthy food—focused on BIPOC and other populations that experience health disparities.
• 103 sponsorships to organizations for specific events like community celebrations, gatherings, and fundraisers.
• 3 capital grants to health centers—1 community, 2 Native—that serve under invested in communities to expand access to dental care.
• 3 Local Impact Networks (Pierce County, North Sound, Smile Spokane).

Learn more about Arcora’s funding opportunities.

When the SmileMobile set off for its first community clinics in 1995, we couldn’t have imagined just how far we’d go. Back then, it primarily provided exams, oral health education, fluoride varnish, and sealants to children up to age 13 from low-income families.

Support for our modern dental office on wheels continues to strengthen. In 2006, Arcora joined with Seattle Children’s Hospital (formerly Children’s Hospital) in a partnership that continues to this day. Partnerships have expanded to include tribes, churches, and community-based organizations across Washington state with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color populations. Our goal to travel to people who face barriers to care remains essentially the same. And while we still get lots of kids on the van—we’re seeing more older children, pregnant people, and adults. This is just one way we’ve tried to be responsive to communities’ needs over the years.

“Congratulations to the SmileMobile for 30 years of improving the oral as well as overall health of more than 52,000 throughout Washington state. It has been such a privilege to have the opportunity to provide the much-needed care to so many appreciative patients over the years. And it has been such an honor to share the experiences with hundreds of dental staff members, volunteers, students, and Arcora Foundation staff members. We are all looking forward to many more years and miles of healthy smiles!”

-Paul Phillips, DDS, SmileMobile Dentist

As we tune up the van for another year of building partnerships and healthy smiles, we’re committed to being an authentic partner now and down the road into the future.

In parts of Washington state, people with Apple Health (Medicaid) or no insurance have few or no options for dental care. That’s why our SmileMobile travels across the state to deliver oral health services to children and families with limited options by bridging the gap and connecting them to ongoing dental care. The 3-chair modern dental office on wheels holds clinics and community events in partnership with schools, community-based organizations, and tribes.

• Medical and behavioral health care.
• Resources to help access transportation to and from appointments.
• Telephone interpretation services.

People in Washington state with Apple Health (Medicaid) or no insurance can access dental care when, where, and how they want. DentistLink—a free referral service—connects people to dentists and related resources to support their oral health. This public-private partnership includes Arcora, Health Care Authority, and Project Access Northwest.

Health disparities don’t define a community. The richness of their experiences, traditions, and wisdom allows them to be joyous and thrive. With this in mind, Arcora collaborated with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander partners on a social media campaign to help people in the community reach their full health potential. Data show a higher risk of diabetes and other negative health outcomes for them related to sugary drink consumption. Community members and families served by Asia Pacific Cultural Center and Pacific Islander Health Board of Washington informed the messaging and direction of our systems change approach to:

• Increase awareness of sugary drink alternatives.
• Encourage consumption of fewer sugary drinks—and more water—especially during social gatherings.

Leaders and staff from both organizations helped fine tune the campaign and offered their input. In its first run, the campaign delivered more than 14 million ad impressions between July and early October. Each viewer was exposed to the ads 3-7 times, depending on the social media platform, which aligns with the recommended frequency for building awareness. The user-generated videos, featuring a Pacific Islander content creator, achieved a 74% video completion rate, exceeding industry benchmarks.

These campaign successes highlight the importance of listening, learning, and co-creating with communities. Our goal was to create a program that addressed the health care needs of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders but also honor their cultural values, traditions, and lived experiences. Looking ahead, we will evaluate the campaign’s performance, focusing on reach, message retention, and changes in sugary beverage consumption. Once the evaluation is finalized, we hope to apply key insights and explore ways to share this collaborative approach with other communities facing similar health challenges.

Building on our partnership with the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, we engaged in similar healthy behavior work with our Native partners. Led by Tahoma Peak Solutions—a Native-woman owned firm— this work began with focus groups and resulted in the development of culturally responsive strategies and a plan to bring constituents together to work toward improved oral and overall health.

“This effort has personally inspired me, and I make my own tea blends and drink about a gallon per week. The research is solid regarding the health benefits of tea, and I’ve appreciated the conversations our group has had with Val [Valerie Segrest of Tahoma Peak Solutions]—she is a wealth of information on all things tea and beyond. I recently went to a yoga retreat in Washington and provided tea—Peace Tea of course.”

-Sheila Blacketer, Hygienist with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Together, we offered tribal dental programs the Native Infusion: Rethink Your Drink curriculum. This 7-month health education curriculum encourages water consumption—ideally fluoridated tap water—traditional medicinal teas, and other beverages with low or no sugar that are reminiscent of beverages ancestors consumed.

Following our initial meeting, collaborative members participated in monthly community of practice gatherings that convened virtually from April through October. Participating tribes included Swinomish, Tulalip, Muckleshoot, Lummi, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Each month, Tahoma Peak Solutions leaders taught participants about traditional foods and medicines that were available during the time of the gathering, demonstrated how to make beverages from the foods and medicines, and shared the recipes. Participants shared beverages at community events and noted increases in engagement from community members when the beverages were offered. This led to conversations focused on the impact of sugar consumption and the benefits of healthier alternatives.

“Working alongside Matt [Associate Program Officer Matt Gonzalez] and Sarah [Director of Children’s Programs and Tribal Partnerships Sarah Borgida] at Arcora Foundation has been an inspiring experience. Their commitment to culturally relevant health initiatives within Tribal health clinics brings innovation and flexibility to the table, ensuring long-term, meaningful impact. We value this partnership and are excited about the positive changes it will continue to bring to the communities we serve.”

-Valerie Segrest, BSN, MA, Tahoma Peak Solutions Co-Founder and CEO and Native Foods Nutritionist, Muckleshoot Tribal Member

Learn more about Arcora’s tribal partnerships.