Background of the Project

A November 1998 voter initiative created the California Children and Families act, with funding from a $.50 increase per pack tax to cigarettes. The initiative, more commonly referred to as Prop 10, or more recently as First 5, (http://ccfc.ca.gov/stateinfo.htm) authorizes the California Children and Families Commission (CCFC) and 58 county commissions to support creation of a comprehensive and integrated system of information and services to promote early childhood development and school readiness for children prenatally to age 5. Oral health has become a focus area for some of these efforts.

CCFC awarded a planning grant to Lassen County Children and Families Commission for FY 2000-2001 to convene an oral health summit and develop a multi-county workplan for Lassen, Modoc, Plumas and Sierra counties to improve the oral health of young children. The summit was held in October 2000, resulting in a draft regional workplan and a final report (http://ccfc.ca.gov/lassen/page9.html). The CCFC subsequently awarded a second grant to the Lassen County Commission to 1) develop an oral health resource manual for rural California communities to use in addressing oral health access and prevention issues, and 2) to follow-up on selected recommendations from their workplan. A planning committee determined that a Web-based guide rather than a written manual in a notebook would be more accessible and would allow more frequent updating. Ms. Laura Roberts, Executive Director of Lassen CCFC, served as the Project Manager, and contracted with Ms. Beverly Isman, RDH, MPH, ELS to develop the online manual. All of the chapters were peer reviewed and will be updated on a quarterly basis.