Oral Health Educator

The Oral Health Forum (OHF) is seeking an AmeriCorps member to serve as an Oral Health Educator for children enrolled in Chicago public schools and Chicago Park District summer camps. OHF’s Oral Health Education project provides outreach services to children and families of Chicago Public Schools (CPS); reaching community members by providing educational presentations and dental hygiene kits to children and distributing oral health resources at community events and health fairs.

OHF’s mission “to target inequities in the quality of and access to oral health care; creating more workable and equitable solutions that integrate oral care into primary care” is the foundation that guides its program design. Aligning school-based and community services to prevent child oral disease is a core principle of OHF’s programs. Efforts expand access to information that improves community oral health literacy and decrease the prevalence of dental treatment needs of children across Chicago. OHF is a project housed in Heartland Alliance Health (HAH) that was created in 2008 to extend high-quality equitable oral health care across Chicago communities. OHF has led the advancement of program design that prioritizes oral health and wellness across all health systems. Over the last 14 years, it has grown into a community-based, grassroots initiative deeply embedded within the neighborhoods it serves. As healthcare trends change and communication methods evolve to engage audiences generationally, OHF shifts gears to remain abreast of changes in service delivery, ensuring access to care continues to improve. The comprehensive education program and curriculum developed by OHF leverage a strategic network of partnerships to integrate its education services within CPS’ Student Health and Wellness initiatives. Promoting health equity, OHF’s network of stakeholders continues to grow by sharing its oral health education model and curriculum with medical-dental students and practicing health professionals to provide best-practice dental service delivery throughout Illinois.

Created in 2011, OHF’s Oral Health Education program supports Chicago children in improving their oral health outcomes with consistent and relevant information delivered in classrooms to support the adoption of daily dental hygiene practices, individually as students and at home as a family. OHF’s Oral Health Education program advances the initiatives of OHF’s mission by ensuring that children and families of all demographics and socioeconomic statuses receive access to oral health education services and resources to improve oral health outcomes. Promoting health equity, OHF’s network of stakeholders continues to grow by sharing its oral health education model and curriculum with medical-dental students and practicing health professionals to provide best-practice dental service delivery throughout Illinois. Education services play an integral role in the holistic initiative implemented by OHF to influence oral health literacy among CPS children and their families with engaging, family-centered education outreach services. OHF’s oral health education program targets the entire family and provides classroom presentations for students in Chicago public schools. It offers continuing education opportunities to reinforce oral health learning objectives by providing community-based parent and caregiver education services.

Offering a holistic approach, Oral Health Educators reach families through community events by participating in health fairs and school-sponsored events. Ensuring oral health education services reach Chicago children throughout every year, OHF conducts presentations during summer months when CPS is out of session at Chicago Park District summer camps, reaching an additional 3,000 children annually. Providing students and families with dental hygiene products during health fairs and education presentations, OHF ensures that all Chicago communities have access to equitable oral health products.

OHF’s Oral Health Education program is a school-based intervention offering oral health education presentations to children enrolled in Chicago public schools. Reaching nearly 25,000 CPS students annually, OHF presents an age-appropriate and culturally relevant curriculum approved by the Office of Student Health and Wellness as meeting the standards of education for all CPS students. OHF’s oral health education model teaches children and families about dental hygiene habits that prevent oral disease, providing education presentations and outreach materials in both English and Spanish.

The role of the NHC service member will be to provide in-person education presentations to children enrolled in Chicago public schools and participating in Chicago Park District summer camps and pack and deliver dental hygiene kits to educated children. Additionally, the service member will participate in community health fairs and back-to-school events where dental hygiene kits and resources will be distributed to community members, giving children and families the tools needed to practice good oral health habits at home.

• Engaging in outreach and promoting health education topics and healthcare services
• Collaborating with pre-existing patients and partner organizations
• Implementing and executing program using established protocols
• Conducting data collection
• Conduct oral health education presentations to community members
• Communicate with community-based organizations, schools, and partners to schedule outreach services
• Participate in community events to distribute dental hygiene kits and other oral health education resources to promote good oral health habits
• Collect and enter program data for analysis and reporting purposes 

• Familiar with health equity-related issues
• Organized
• Multi-tasker; able to balance
• Comfort speaking with others, individually or in groups
• Community engagement/outreach skills
• In order to be successful in this position, the ideal service member will be a self-starter and able to work independently from others. Experience working with children or conducting presentations is a plus though not required.

• Knowledge of AmeriCorps/Health Corps member requirements
• Skill with Microsoft Office or other software for a variety of data processing operations involving a range of problem solving, record keeping, correspondence, and service tracking options.
• Service members will be trained in full on how to track program data using Microsoft Excel.

• Member uses initiative in carrying out recurring assignments following set procedures, independently
• The supervisor assigns service activities, advises on changes in procedures, and is available for assistance when required
• The supervisor assigns service activities in terms of project objectives and basic priorities and is available for consultation in resolving controversial issues.
• Help text: In the space below, please provide any additional information or explanations.
• The service member's supervisor will be available for support while the member is serving in the field. In the event the direct supervisor is unavailable, the service member can connect with the program director or manager of case management services who serve as the other team leaders, and all OHF team members are available for support, as needed.

• The service activities are reviewed for accuracy through spot checks, through complaints from customers, and through observation of the member at service.
• The member independently plans and carries out the projects and selects the approaches and methods to be used in solving problems
• Completed projects are reviewed very generally to determine that objectives have been met and are in compliance with policies and regulations
• Help text: In the space below, please provide any additional information or explanations.
• Program data is checked regularly by the service member supervisor and leadership team for quality assurance. If identified, missing, incomplete, or inaccurate data tracking is followed-up with written and verbal guidance from the member supervisor or leadership team to support the member's development as a health educator and service member.

• Written and oral guides provide specific instructions for doing service
• Most instructions are easily memorized and require little interpretation
• Detailed guidelines exist, including regulations and directives, handbooks, precedents, industry standards, and files of previous projects
• Guidelines are generally applicable, but the member independently makes adaptations in dealing with problems and unusual situations
• Member must use considerable judgment in adapting current or developing new guidance
• The service member will be trained on how to deliver oral health education presentations using OHF's Oral Health Education Curriculum, and will be expected to deliver age appropriate presentations independent of training materials. 

• The facts or conditions of the service position are clear cut, predictable, and apply directly to the assignment
• The service member will be expected to follow the OHF Oral Health Education Curriculum that is approved for use in Chicago public schools. Members are encouraged to personalize their delivery style to help engage with participants.

• Personal vehicle required
• Health screening or service required
• Criminal history check requirements beyond those required by National Health Corps

• OHF’s service delivery model follows trends in public health data to determine the areas in primary need of its oral health education services. Information provided to OHF by CDPH shows that the areas in Chicago with the highest rates of child oral disease are areas that are predominately Latinx, thus the need for a bilingual-Spanish service member is great.

  Additionally, because this position requires traveling around the city of Chicago to different schools and community-based organizations to delivery dental hygiene kits and conduct education presentations, the service member will need access to a vehicle for transportation and service delivery. Mileage will be reimbursed for travel in the community at the standard HAH rate which currently for FY23 is $0.58/mile.

  This service member position will also require a pre-onboarding health screening and a CPS background check to provide outreach services in Chicago public schools.